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THE  GLANDS  REGULATING 
PERSONALITY 


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THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON   •   CHICAGO   •   DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •   SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO..  Limited 

LONDON   •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OP  CANADA.  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


THE  GLANDS  REGULATING 
PERSONALITY 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  GLANDS  OF  INTERNAL  SECRETION 

IN  RELATION  TO  THE  TYPES  OF 

HUMAN  NATURE 


BY 

LOUIS  BERMAN,  M.D. 

ASSOCIATE    IN    BIOLOGICAL    CHEMISTRY,    COLUMBIA   UNI- 
VERSITY;   PHYSICIAN    TO   THE    SPECIAL    HEALTH    CLINIC, 
LENOX   HILL  HOSPITAL 


The  passage  from  the  miracles  of  nature  to  those 
of  art  is  easy. 

— Francis  Bacon,  Novum  Organum,  1620. 


jfteto  gork 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1921 

All  rights  reterved 


Ml 

FEINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


1345 


Copyright,  1921, 
By   LOUIS   BERMAN. 


Set  up  and  printed.     Published  October,  1921. 


Press  of 

J.  J.  Little  tc  Ive«  Company 

New  York,  U.  8.  A. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAOB 

Introduction  :  Attitudes  Toward  Human  Nature  1 

I.    How  the  Glands  op  Internal  Secretion  Were 

Discovered 28 

II.    The  Glands:  Thyroid  and  Pituitary   ....  46 

III.  The  Adrenal  Glands,  Gonads,  and  Thymus     .  69 

IV.  The  Glands  as  an  Interlocking  Directorate     .  96 
V.    How  the  Glands  Influence  the  Normal  Body  113 

VI.    The  Mechanics  of  the  Masculine  and  Feminine  132 

VII.    The  Rhythms  of  Sex 149 

VIII.    How  the  Glands  Influence  the  Mind    .     .     .  166 

IX.    The  Backgrounds  of  Personality 186 

X.    The  Types  of  Personality 202 

XI.    Some  Historic  Personages 231 

XII.    Applications  and  Possibilities 255 

XIII.    The  Effect  upon  Human  Evolution   ....  275 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2010  with  funding  from 

Open  Knowledge  Commons  (for  the  Medical  Heritage  Library  project) 


http://www.archive.org/details/glandsregulatingOOberm 


THE  GLANDS  REGULATING 
PERSONALITY 


THE  GLANDS  REGULATING 
PERSONALITY 

INTRODUCTION 

ATTITUDES  TOWARD  HUMAN  NATURE 

The  Case  Against  Human  Nature 

Man,  know  thyself,  said  the  old  Greek  philosopher.  Man  per- 
force has  taken  that  advice  to  heart.  His  life-long  interest  is  his 
own  species.  In  the  cradle  he  begins  to  collect  observations  on 
the  nature  of  the  queer  beings  about  him.  As  he  grows,  the 
research  continues,  amplifies,  broadens.  Wisdom  he  measures  by 
the  devastating  accuracy  of  the  data  he  accumulates.  When  he 
declares  he  knows  human  nature,  consciously  cynical  maturity 
speaks.  Doctor  of  human  nature — every  man  feels  himself 
entitled  to  that  degree  from  the  university  of  disillusioning  expe- 
rience. In  defense  of  his  claim,  only  the  limitations  of  his  ar- 
ticulate faculty  will  curb  the  vehemence  of  his  indictment  of  his 
fellows. 

For  all  history  provides  the  material,  literature  the  critique, 
biology  the  inexorable  logic  of  the  case  against  human  nature. 
The  historical  record  is  a  spectacle  of  man  destroying  man,  a 
collection  of  chapters  on  man's  increasing  cruelty  to  man.  Limi- 
tations of  time  and  space  have  been  shortened  and  eliminated. 
Tools  of  production  have  been  multiplied  and  complicated.  The 
sources  of  energy  and  power  have  been  systematically  attacked 
and  trapped.  But  the  nature  of  man  has  remained  so  unchanged 
that  clap  trap  about  progress  is  easy  target  for  the  barrage  of 
every  cheap  pamphleteer. 

The  naturalist  probes  into  codes  of  conduct,  systems  of  moral- 
ity, structures  of  societies,  variations  in  the  scales  of  value  that 
individuals,  races  and  nations  have  subjected  themselves  to  as 
custom,  law  and  religion.  Again  and  again  the  portrait  is 
presented  of  man  preying  upon  man,  of  cunning  a  parasite  upon 

1 


2  THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

stupidity  and  of  predatory  strength  enslaving  the  weakling  intel- 
lect. Until  finally  are  evoked  reactions  and  consequences  that 
overtake  in  catastrophe  and  catacylsm  preyer  and  preyed  upon 
alike. 

Human  nature  is  but  part  of  the  magnificent  tree  of  beast 
nature.  Man  is  linked  by  every  tie  of  blood  and  bone  and  cell 
memories  with  his  brethren  of  the  sea,  the  jungle,  the  forest  and 
the  fields.  The  beast  is  a  seeker  of  freedom,  but  a  seeker  for  his 
own  ego  alone,  and  the  satisfaction  of  his  own  instincts  only. 
Thus  he  struggles  to  a  sort  of  freedom  which  makes  him  the 
Ishmael  of  the  Universe,  everyone's  hand  against  him,  as  his  own 
hand  is  against  everyone.  The  human  animal  has  achieved  no 
advance  beyond  the  necessities  of  his  ancestors,  nor  freed  himself 
from  his  bondage  to  their  instincts  and  automatic  reflexes.  And 
so  the  sociologist,  the  analyst  of  human  associations,  turns  out 
to  be  simply  the  historian  and  accountant  of  slaveries. 

Yet  the  history  of  mankind  is,  too,  a  long  research  into  the 
nature  of  the  machinery  of  freedom.  All  recorded  history,  indeed, 
is  but  the  documentation  of  that  research.  Viewed  thus,  customs, 
laws,  institutions,  sciences,  arts,  codes  of  morality  and  honor, 
systems  of  life,  become  inventions,  come  upon,  tried  out,  stand- 
ardized, established  until  scrapped  in  everlasting  search  for  more 
and  more  perfect  means  of  freeing  body  and  soul  from  their 
congenital  thralldom  to  a  host  of  innumerable  masters.  Indeed, 
the  history  of  all  life,  vegetable  and  animal,  of  bacillus,  elephant, 
orchid,  gorilla,  as  well  as  of  man  is  the  history  of  a  searching  for 
freedom. 

Freedom!  What  to  a  living  creature  is  freedom?  How  com- 
pletely has  it  dominated  the  life  history  of  every  creature  that 
ever  crawled  upon  the  earth?  Trace  our  cellular  pedigree,  descend 
our  family  tree  to  its  rootlets,  our  amebic  ancestors,  and  the 
craving  for  more  freedom  is  manifest  in  the  soul  of  even  the 
lowest,  buried  in  darkness  and  slime.  When  the  first  clever  bit 
of  colloidal  ooze,  protoplasm  as  the  ameba,  protruded  a  bit  of 
itself  as  a  pseudopod,  it  achieved  a  new  freedom.  For,  accident- 
ally or  deliberately,  it  created  for  itself  a  new  power — the  ability 
to  go  directly  for  food  in  its  environment,  instead  of  waiting, 
patiently,  passively,  as  the  plant  does,  for  food  to  just  happen 
along.  Therewith  developed  in  place  of  the  previous  quietist 
pacifist,  quaker  attitude  toward  its  surroundings,  a  new  religion, 
a  new  tone:  aggressive,  predatory,  careerist. 

That  adventure  was  a  great  step  forward  for  the  ameba — a 


ATTITUDES  TOWARD  HUMAN  NATURE  3 

miracle  that  freed  it  forever  from  the  danger  of  death  by  starva- 
tion. But  latent  in  that  move  were  all  the  terrible  possibilities 
of  the  tiger,  the  alligator,  the  wolf  and  all  the  varieties  of  preda- 
ceous  beast  and  plant,  parasitism  and  slavery.  The  device  that 
enabled  the  ameba  to  change  its  position  in  space  of  its  own  will, 
and  so  increased  its  freedom  immeasnreably,  meant  the  genera- 
tion of  infinite  evil,  pain,  suffering  and  degradation  for  billions  in 
the  womb  of  time. 


The  Breeding  of  Inferiority 

Human  history,  being  a  continuation  of  vertebrate  his- 
tory, is  full  of  similar  instances.  The  invention  of  the  stock 
company,  for  example,  furnished  a  certain  relative  freedom  to 
hundreds,  a  certain  amount  of  leisure  to  think  and  play,  and 
independence  to  travel  and  record,  and  immunity  from  a  daily 
routine  and  drudgery.  In  turn,  it  bore  fruit  in  miseries  and 
horrors  multiplied  for  millions,  like  those  of  the  child  lacemakers 
of  Mid- Victorian  England,  who  were  dragged  from  their  beds  at 
two  or  three  oclock  in  the  morning  to  work  until  ten  or  eleven 
at  night  in  the  services  of  a  stock  company. 

A  corporation  is  said  to  have  no  soul.  The  struggle  for  freedom 
of  every  living  thing  has  no  conscience.  Throughout  the  living 
world,  from  ameba  to  man,  parasitism  and  slavery  together  with 
their  by-products,  physical  and  spiritual  degeneracy,  appear  as 
the  after  effects  of  the  more  vital  individual's  efforts  to  remain 
alive  and  free.  The  origins  of  slavery  may  be  seen  in  the  parasit- 
isms of  the  infectious  diseases  which  kill  man.  The  change  from 
parasitism  to  slavery  was  an  inevitable  step  of  creative  intelli- 
gence. In  the  transition  evolution  made  one  of  those  breaks 
which  it  indulges  in  periodically  as  its  mode  of  progress. 

The  natural  effect  of  slavery  has  been  a  selection  of  two  sorts 
of  individuals  along  the  lines  of  the  survival  of  the  adapted. 
It  has  tended  to  perpetuate  in  the  breed  the  qualities  of  the 
strong  which  would  make  them  stronger,  and  certain  qualities  in 
the  weak  which  would  increase  their  weakness.  For  parasitism 
and  likewise  slavery  infallibly  entail  the  degradation  of  certain 
structures  and  an  overgrowth  of  others  by  the  law  of  use  and 
disuse.  The  type  of  organ  which  would  function  normally,  were 
not  its  possessor  parasitic  in  that  function,  invariably  degenerates 
or  disappears.     Parasitic  insects  lose  their  wings.     An  entire 


4  THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

anatomical  system  may  even  be  lost.  So  the  tapeworm,  which 
feeds  upon  the  digested  food  present  in  the  intestines  of  its  host, 
has  no  alimentary  canal  of  its  own  because  it  needs  none.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  organs  of  attack  and  combat  grow  by  a 
constant  use  into  the  most  remarkable  of  efficient  weapons. 

In  human  society  the  process  continues.  Out  of  the  tapeworm 
nature,  the  tiger  nature,  the  wolf  nature,  the  simian  nature, 
human  nature  evolves.  Repeated  episodes  of  subjugation  and 
suppression  mixed  with  countless  incidents  of  predaceous  cupidity 
and  rapacity  have  made  Man  what  he  is  today.  Indeed,  by  a  sort 
of  instinct,  society  has  constructed  its  institutions  upon  em- 
pirical observations  and  assumptions  agreeing  with  this  principle. 
The  deductions  concerning  human  nature  and  human  traits  that 
an  interplanetary  visitor  would  draw  from  a  study  of  our 
common  law  would  be  at  least  slightly  humiliating  to  our  incor- 
rigible pride.  Law  courts,  codes  of  civil  contract  and  criminal 
procedure,  the  systems  of  subordination  in  armies  and  navies, 
castes  and  classes,  men  and  women,  employers  and  employees, 
teachers  and  pupils,  parents  and  children,  are  based  upon  the 
fundamental,  the  conservative  axiom  that  man,  especially  the 
common  plain  man  (Lincoln's  phrase),  is  a  being  incurably  lazy, 
stupid,  dishonest,  muddled,  cowardly,  greedy,  restless,  obsessed 
with  a  low  cunning  and  a  selfish  callousness  and  insensibility 
to  the  sufferings  of  his  fellow  creatures,  animal  and  human. 

Why  is  it  that  Man,  the  noblest  creature  of  creation,  made  in 
the  image  of  God,  capable  of  the  flights  of  attainment  that  dis- 
tinguish a  Christ,  a  Caesar,  a  Plato,  a  Shakespeare,  a  Shelley,  a 
Newton,  is  so  described,  not  alone  by  hopeless  pessimists  like 
Koheleth,  Swift,  and  Mark  Twain,  but  by  the  common  law,  the 
common  opinion,  the  common  assumptions  of  mankind?  Because 
the  development  of  slavery  and  parasitism  in  human  society,  the 
subjection  of  the  weak  to  the  strong,  the  dull  and  base  to  the 
clever  and  headstrong,  set  up  a  vicious  cycle:  the  liberation  of 
more  energy  for  the  making  of  more  and  more  slaves  and  the 
propagation  of  slaves  and  slave  qualities  in  a  geometrically 
increasing  proportion. 

This  might  be  called  the  Malthusian  law  of  slavery.  For  the 
qualities  that  I  have  named  as  man's  own  characterization  of 
himself  are  the  qualities  of  the  slave  and  the  slave-soul.  Nietzche 
took  great  pains  to  repeat  ad  nauseam  that  these  qualities  were 
the  qualities  of  the  slave.  But  by  burdening  himself  with  the 
hypothesis,  evolved  from  his  inner  consciousness,  that  the  slaves 


ATTITUDES  TOWARD  HUMAN  NATURE  5 

imposed  from  below  a  morality  of  weakness  upon  their  masters, 
he  missed  the  really  obvious  process  by  which  slaves  beget  more 
slaves,  slavery  begets  more  slavery,  and  the  slave-soul  becomes 
universal.  That  process  is  the  simple  action  of  physical  and 
spiritual  reproduction  of  the  slaves.  The  subnormal  begets  the 
subnormal,  the  inferior  begets  the  inferior. 

Slavery  appeared  as  an  invention  of  the  would-be-free.  It  was 
a  brilliant  flash  of  genius  of  a  seeker  after  freedom.  However, 
it  became  a  boomerang.  By  multiplication  and  hereditary  trans- 
mission, the  inferiority  and  the  number  of  the  slaves  created  a 
new  overwhelming  problem  for  the  superior  few,  the  upper  crust 
of  the  free.  At  last  the  problem  grew  into  the  problem  of  prob- 
lems, the  problem  of  government,  that  threatened  all  freedom, 
as  an  epidemic  disease  threatens  even  the  most  healthy.  Govern- 
ment, at  first  organized  for  conquest  and  subjugation,  had  to 
change  its  character  until  it  became  more  and  more  to  consist  of 
experiments  in  a  new  social  machinery  that  would  free  somebody 
of  the  incubus.  So  through  the  centuries,  one  technique  of  liberty 
after  another  was  tested  in  the  laboratory  of  experience. 

But  always  the  attempts  are  so  muddled,  because  the  problem 
is  not  grasped.  Muddledom  is  the  essence  of  the  slave-soul.  And 
the  essence  infiltrates  and  poisons  the  whole  atmosphere  in 
which  the  would-be-free  think  and  act.  Kings'  heads  are  chopped 
off,  a  whole  class  is  guillotined,  reform  movements  come  and  go, 
the  masters  fight  every  inch  of  their  retreat,  and  pile  strategem 
upon  strategem,  device  upon  device,  to  retain  their  spoils. 

The  democratic  formula  of  freedom  for  all  comes  to  the  fore. 
So  at  last  universal  suffrage  is  introduced  as  the  panacea.  Free- 
dom seems  within  grasp.  Now  it  looks  as  if  a  method  and  an 
objective  have  been  hit  upon,  that  will  lead  both  the  free  and  the 
enslaved  out  of  their  mutual  bondage,  and  release  the  handcuffs 
which  the  would-be-free  think  and  act.  Kings'  heads  are  chopped 
to  which  history  had  subjected  institutions  appeared  to  culminate 
in  the  formula  that  would  automatically  yield  Liberty.  The 
French  wanted  a  little  more  and  added  Equality  and  Fraternity. 
The  Americans  put  it  quite  definitely  as  the  formula  that  would 
assist  the  Pursuit  of  Life,  Liberty,  and  Happiness.  That  formula 
is:  the  democracy  of  the  normals. 

To  be  sure,  a  civilization  might  be  organized  for  the  breeding 
and  the  glorification  of  the  supernormals.  Such  a  civilization 
may  yet  have  to  be  tried.  But  as  the  supernormals,  as  we  know 
them  today,  are  merely  biologic  sports,  in  a  sense,  simple  acci- 


6         THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

dents,  no  one  can  tell  whether  they  will  turn  out  true  shots  or 
just  flashes  in  the  pan.  So  it  looks  the  better  course  to  stick  to 
the  plan  of  nature,  which  seems  to  be  the  raising  of  the  level  of 
the  normals,  and  the  gradual  increase  of  their  faculties  and 
powers. 

What  the  Statesman  Is  Up  Against 

Under  the  terms  of  the  democratic  formula  the  problems  of 
the  statesman  seem  to  become  enormously  simplified.  That  is,  if 
one  assumes  that  he  has  worked  out  a  perfectly  clear  idea  of  what 
a  democracy  means  and  what  the  normal  means.  Assuming 
these  unassumables,  his  problem  simplifies  into  the  definite  object 
of  producing  and  developing  the  greatest  possible  number  of 
normals — or  if  you  will,  the  greatest  happiness  of  the  greatest 
number  of  normal  lives. 

Furthermore  you  then  begin  to  have  the  entirely  novel  possi- 
bility in  the  world:  some  sort  of  collective  effort  for  a  collective 
purpose,  beyond  the  personal  greeds  and  fears,  factions  and 
hatreds.  So  the  state,  instead  of  fulfilling  its  old  function  of 
serving  as  the  tool  of  certain  powerful  individuals,  latterly  known 
as  the  Big  Men,  might  be  transformed  into  an  instrument  toward 
freedom.  With  the  ideal  of  a  democracy  of  the  normals  ever 
before  him,  the  statesman  could  go  on  to  construct  and  modify 
his  social  machinery.  That  would  entail  the  satisfaction  not 
alone  of  the  animal  needs,  but  also  the  highest  aspirations  and 
therefore  the  provision  of  the  finest  conditions  of  life  for  the 
normal:  those  most  favorable,  stimulative,  and  assistant  to  crea- 
tive activity.    For  what  else  is  the  content  of  the  idea  of  freedom? 

Without  committing  the  intellectual  sin  which  William  James 
named  Vicious  Abstractionism,  the  goal  of  the  clearest  progres- 
sive and  liberal  thought  and  forces  of  the  twentieth  century 
might  be  summed  up  as  this  freedom  in  a  democracy  of  normals. 
A  good  formula  which  coincides  with  the  technique  of  nature  in 
the  evolution  of  species.  A  fair  fight,  a  free-for-all  who  are 
unhandicapped,  is  the  motto  of  natural  selection.  Where  civiliza- 
tion shakes  hands  with  natural  instinct,  what  but  the  happiest 
of  results  can  be  expected? 

Unfortunately,  the  formula  in  human  society  possesses  an 
Achilles'  heel.  Again  it  is  slavery.  Where  slavery  has  become 
bred  into  the  bone,  the  standard  of  the  normal  becomes  reduced 
so  tremendously  that  the  average  of  normals,  the  majority,  are 


ATTITUDES  TOWARD  HUMAN  NATURE  7 

hopelessly  inferior.  In  effect,  they  are  really  subnormal.  So  the 
ideal  of  our  ideal  statesman  is  bound  to  be  defeated  because  of 
the  inadequacy  of  his  material. 

No  matter  how  interested  in  his  main  business:  the  promotion 
of  freedom  for  creative  activities  in  a  democracy  of  the  normals, 
he  is  bound  to  be  beaten  by  the  majority  consisting  of  subnor- 
mals. There  is  nothing  left  for  for  him  but  to  cater  to  the 
minority  of  careerists,  the  one-eighth  of  the  electorate  represent- 
ing superior  intelligence.  The  intelligence  tests  employed  in  the 
War  showed  that  and  also  that  forty-five  per  cent  of  the  exam- 
ined, or  about  one  half  the  total  population,  had  a  mental 
capacity,  or  natural  ability  that  would  never  develop  beyond  the 
stage  normal  to  a  twelve-year-old  child.  They  are  doomed  to 
remain  forever  subnormal. 

The  Careerists  as  the  Abnonnals 

The  careerists  are  those  who  practice  the  careerist  religion. 
The  careerist  religion  is  the  religion  par  excellence  of  modernity. 
Someone  once  said,  with  the  perfect  candor  of  the  North 
American,  that  America  is  the  land  of  opportunity.  He  meant 
that  America  is  the  land  of  the  Careerist  or,  as  it  has  also  been 
put,  it  is  the  land  of  the  man  on  the  make.  The  careerist,  or 
the  man  on  the  make,  is  of  a  thousand  genera  and  species,  varie- 
ties and  subvarieties,  with  transition  links  between.  One  finds 
him  at  every  level  of  society. 

Excepting  a  negligible  minority,  the  feminine  career  of  today 
(as  of  the  last  ten  thousand  years  of  the  race's  history)  consists 
in  the  acquisition  of  a  husband.  After  that  she  is  so  identified 
with  him  that  her  own  life,  as  something  distinct,  individual  and 
unique,  becomes  blurred  and  then  completely  erased.  The  femi- 
nine careerist,  the  careeristina,  if  you  will,  is  a  definite  type. 
Consider  the  unimportance  of  a  collective  purpose  to  the  woman 
whose  career  is  the  mate,  and  then  the  mate's  career.  All  the 
kinks  and  twists  of  the  feminine  mind,  resulting  from  the  neces- 
sities of  that  fundamental  primary  problem,  would  form  a  multi- 
tudinous and  interesting  list.  The  most  successful  careeristinas 
are  the  absolutely  unconscious  ones  because  they  are  not 
passively  besieged  nor  actively  bombarded  by  any  doubts  as  to 
what  they  want.  They  play  their  game  exceedingly  well  as  do  not 
the  quasi-rebels  and  faint-hearted  revoltees  that  form  no  small 
percentage  of  the  Newest  Women.    For  a  number  of  women  the 


8         THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

feminist  movement  has  been  an  attempt  to  break  away  from  the 
traditions  of  the  wife-careerist,  and  to  strike  a  line  of  auto- 
careerism.  Can  the  careeristina  instinct,  the  fruit  of  the  practice 
of  so  many  generations,  be  uprooted  by  the  good  intentions  of  a 
mere  statesman? 

But  the  masculine  careerist  is  a  marvelous  creature.  He  is  a 
biologic  sport,  an  abnormal  variation.  New  York  is  the  place  to 
watch  and  study  him  in  his  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands. 
You  can  observe  him  climbing,  climbing,  climbing,  precisely  as 
an  ant  climbs  a  tree.  Nothing  can  really  discourage  or  sway 
him  from  his  chosen  path.  If  he  is  not  getting  on  financially,  he 
is  getting  on  socially,  or  he  is  using  the  one  method  of  advance 
to  help  him  with  the  other.  How  the  line  of  least  resistance  and 
greatest  advantage  is  determined  for  and  taken  by  him  is  a  fas- 
cinating process. 

The  careerist  instinct,  the  inherited  flair  for  a  career,  must  not 
be  confounded  with  the  instincts  of  self-preservation,  self-expan- 
sion or  self-expression,  because  they  are  utterly  different.  Indeed, 
the  careerist  instinct  is  often  their  direct  antagonist,  clashing  with 
and  dominating  them.  The  making  of  the  career  involves  the 
distortion,  the  mutilation,  degradation,  degeneration  or  even  the 
complete  suppression  of  the  true  personality.  But  it  is  all  instinc- 
tive. To  consider  the  life  of  the  careerist  as  an  expression  of 
instinct  will  explain  too  the  success  of  so  many  who  have  no 
inner  awareness  of  what  they  want.  These  go  straight  for  the 
career,  looking  neither  to  the  right  nor  to  the  left,  without  doubt 
or  hesitation,  just  as  they  go  for  the  respiration  business  as  soon 
as  they  are  born. 

Then  there  is  the  Super-Careerist.  Ordinarily,  the  careerist  is 
rather  obvious,  easily  recognizable,  with  diaphanous  motives  and 
conduct.  But  there  is  another  and  rarer  bird,  the  careerist  of 
talent,  even  the  careerist  of  genius,  whom  it  is  not  so  easy  to  see 
through.  Clever  and  brainy,  he  may  be  a  good  all  around  trifler, 
or  his  specific  gift  for  some  line  of  achievement  may  make  him 
more  effective.  There  is  nothing  he  may  not  call  himself:  conser- 
vative, liberal,  progressive,  or  radical.  Often  he  is  an  agnostic 
about  social  and  political  affairs  and  problems,  which  passes 
for  the  indecision  of  the  open  mind,  and  is  quite  handy  to  render 
him  all  things  to  all  men.  But  perpetually,  the  underlying 
careerist  instinct  drives  him  to  use  all  men  and  women,  all  ideas 
and  movements  and  forces  he  comes  in  contact  with  for  his  own 
personal  advancement,  just  as  the  slave  making  instinct  guides 


ATTITUDES  TOWARD  HUMAN  NATURE  9 

the  red  ant  in  all  its  activities  to  procure  its  captives.  Ideas  do 
not  make  a  hero  out  of  him,  but  he  makes  heroes  of  ideas,  be- 
cause they  serve  him  in  his  ascent. 

Because  he  is  the  most  subtle,  the  most  complex  and  the  most 
deceptive  type  of  careerist,  he  is  the  most  dangerous  to  the  adven- 
ture and  speculation  in  intellect  which  mankind  is.  To  say  that 
he  is  a  wolf  in  sheepskin  is  to  be  unjust  to  him,  since  he  is  most 
successful  when  he  is  most  unaware  of  his  own  charlatanry.  He 
is  most  sincere  when  he  is  most  insincere,  and  most  truthful  when 
he  lies  best.  A  little  self-consciousness  of  hypocrisy  is  a  corrupt- 
ing thing,  much  of  it  completely  incompatible  with  the  most  suc- 
cessful careerism.  Tartuffe  is  always  applauded  by  the  world 
when  he  plays  Hamlet,  if  he  really  believes  in  himself  as  Hamlet. 
And,  as  all  he  has  to  do,  if  he  is  at  all  talented,  is  to  look  into 
his  glass  and  see  himself  in  the  part,  he  carries  it  off  very  well. 

Why  the  Statesman  Fails 

Slaves  and  careerists,  subnormals  and  abnormals,  are  the  im- 
portant elements  of  the  constituency  of  every  modern  statesman. 
The  financial  and  social  careerists  as  business  men,  professionals, 
artists,  publicists,  presidents  of  countries,  politicians,  philosophers 
dominate  his  outlook,  his  plans,  his  horizon.  The  slaves,  the 
inferiors,  the  subnormals  exist  merely  to  be  exploited  by  them. 
No  one  questions  the  causes  of  the  multiplicity  of  them.  No  one 
asks  why  there  are  so  many  little  lives.  For  a  fundamentally 
minded  statesman  the  control  of  the  production  of  the  careerist, 
why  he  is  produced,  and  how  he  may  be  prevented,  becomes  the 
primary  problem  of  his  art. 

Well,  you  say,  what  are  you  going  to  do  about  it?  That  is 
human  nature.  The  Evils  of  Human  Nature!  There  is  the 
perpetual  answer  to  be  repeated  by  our  clever  editors  unto  Eter- 
nity. You  cannot  get  away  from  human  nature.  It  is  human 
nature  to  be  a  careerist.  It  is  human  nature  to  put  the  immediate 
triumphs  of  the  self  and  its  pleasures  above  the  more  indirect, 
the  more  remote  and  distant  benefits  of  a  great,  wonderful,  free 
community.  WTe  are  all  careerists.  In  so  far  as  democracy  has 
succeeded  as  a  form,  it  has  persisted  because  there  was  in  it  for 
the  common  man  the  promise  of  his  getting  more  out  of  life  that 
way  than  any  other  way.  For  himself.  And  the  devil  take  the 
others.  The  myopia  of  such  crude  selfishness  continues  to  deter- 
mine his  politics  to  this  very  day.    And  so  he  proceeds  to  vote  for 


10        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

favors  bestowed  and  patronage  past  or  potential.  That  is,  when 
he  does  not  throw  his  ballot  away  altogether  into  the  fire  of 
family  habit,  sectional  inertia,  or  race  prejudice. 

Again  you  say,  that  is  human  nature.  It  is  human  nature  for 
us  to  be  narrow,  to  be  confined  within  the  circle  of  personal 
thought  and  desire,  without  imagination  for  the  beyond.  So  the 
calf  is  limited  in  its  wanderings  to  the  radius  of  the  rope  by 
which  it  is  tethered.  The  servile  soul  will  always  be  submissive' 
and  docile,  greedy  and  stupid.  What  else  could  you  expect  from 
the  descendant  of  the  solitary  beast  who  once  lived  for  thousands 
of  years  in  caves?  Without  servility  of  the  soul,  without  chains 
for  the  spirit  of  the  wild  animal  against  the  world,  men  could 
never  have  been  driven  to  live  together  for  twenty-four  hours  in 
communities. 

The  conception  of  human  quality  out  of  which  all  social 
machinery  has  been  devised  and  built  is  a  conception  of  slave 
quality  and  careerist  quality.  As  we  are  all  caught  in  the  net, 
as  the  unconscious  memories  of  our  slave  and  careerist  ancestors 
flow  in  our  blood  and  echo  in  our  cells,  all  we  can  do  is  accept 
it  and  work  with  it.  Human  nature  is  an  incurable  disease.  Like 
Jehovah's  definition  of  Himself,  it  is,  it  has  been,  and  ever  will 
be.  Everywhere  the  same,  always  the  same,  forever  the  same, 
there  is  no  way  out. 

Poor  Human  Nature 

All  of  these  strictures  upon  poor  human  nature  are  exceedingly 
delightful  to  our  careerists.  Every  unpleasant  social  fact,  every 
outrage  to  our  best  instincts,  every  exhibition  of  incapacity,  in- 
competency, inefficiency,  indifference,  every  example  of  super- 
criminal  negligence  is  pardoned  as  an  effect  of  that  universal  sin, 
human  nature.  Take  the  case  of  the  statesman  and  the  diplomats 
who  failed  to  prevent  the  Great  War,  though  they  saw  it  coming 
for  years,  and  who  should  therefore  all,  Entente  as  well  as  Ger- 
man, American  as  well  as  Japanese,  be  indicted  for  their  criminal 
negligence,  precisely  as  a  physician  would  be  for  failure  to  report 
and  stop  the  spread  of  an  epidemic  disease.  All  these  crimes  of 
omission  and  commission  are  excused  on  the  plea  that  it  was 
all  due  to  human  nature,  and  that  what  can  be  blamed  on 
human  nature  in  general  can  be  blamed  on  no  one  in  particular. 

Poor  human*  nature!  Flagellated  on  every  hand,  what  are  we 
to  do  with  it?    Why  is  the  careerist  so  numerous  and  ubiquitous? 


ATTITUDES  TOWARD  HUMAN  NATURE  11 

Why  does  the  slave-soul  infiltrate  like  a  cancer  the  soul  of  society 
with  its  black  fluid?  Is  freedom,  the  divine  idea,  nothing  but  the 
toy  of  an  orator  to  the  majority,  a  distant  star  in  the  night  to  a 
helpless  minority?  Yet  the  instinct  to  freedom,  the  appetite  for 
freedom,  flickers  through  the  centuries  as  a  fitful  flame,  though 
snuffed  out  by  every  gust  of  class  passion,  every  wind  of  mob 
resentment,  and  every  storm  of  national  jealousy.  Though  the 
inferior  subnormals  multiply  into  great  sheep  majorities,  and 
the  careerists,  like  Napoleon,  morbid  variants,  involve  millions 
in  their  disease,  the  idea  of  freedom  persists  obstinately.  Have 
we  any  reason  for  regarding  it  as  other  than  an  illusion? 

If  freedom  is  an  illusion,  we  must  admit  the  doom  of  democracy. 
And  no  Wagnerian  crashes  of  orchestration  mitigate  the  tragedy 
of  the  scene  as  our  eyes  are  opened  to  the  twilight  of  our  new 
gods.  For  what  other  social  methods  are  there  left  to  us?  In  the 
struggle  against  nature's  barriers  upon  human  aspiration  for  per- 
fect satisfactions,  it  looks  as  though  every  other  method  has 
failed  us. 

In  the  past,  refined  aristocracies  and  benevolent  despotisms 
have  failed  as  miserably  as  our  democracies  are  now  failing  and 
as  we  are  sure  crude  anarchism  and  communism  would.  Their 
inferiority  has  thrown  them  on  the  scrap  heap.  As  for  our  present 
ways  of  government  as  a  permanent  method,  the  storage  of  power 
in  the  hands  of  the  Clever  Few,  War  burns  in  the  lesson  of  how 
little  the  careerist  regards  either  the  subnormal  or  supernormal. 
He  condemns  them  all  sooner  or  later  to  wholesale  slavery  and 
carnage. 

Is  man  then  never  to  be  the  architect  of  his  own  destiny?  Are 
we  to  surrender  our  faith  in  the  future  of  our  kind  to  the  spectacle 
of  a  miserable  species  sentenced  by  its  own  nature  to  self-destruc- 
tion? We  thought  to  rise  upon  the  wings  of  knowledge  and 
beauty,  lured  by  the  mysteries  of  color  and  the  magic  of  design 
and  the  might  of  the  intellect  and  its  words,  that  have  trans- 
figured life  into  the  greatest  adventure  ever  attempted  in  time 
and  space.  But  we  find  ourselves  merely  another  experiment, 
intricate  and  rather  long  drawn  out,  to  be  sure,  with  marvelous 
pyrotechnics,  magnificent  effects  here  and  there,  but  bound  to 
eliminate  itself  in  the  end,  to  make  stuff  for  the  museums  of  the 
real  conqueror  of  the  stars  yet  to  come.  We  are  condemned  to 
be  classed  with  the  dodo  and  the  mammoth  by  the  coming  dis- 
coverer of  an  escape  from  the  slave  and  careerist.  And  so  let 
us  resign  ourselves  to  fate.    Let  us  eat  of  the  humble  bread  of 


12        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

the  stoic's  consolation  in  the  face  of  the  mocking  laughter  of 
the  gods,  let  us  admit  that  Mind  in  Man  has  unconsciously  but 
irretrievably  willed  its  own  self-annihilation.  What  remains  for  us 
except  to  beat  our  breasts  and  proclaim:  So  be  it,  O  Lord,  so  be  it? 

Man  as  a  Transient 

Yet,  true  as  it  is  that  the  human  animal  has  achieved  no 
advance  beyond  the  necessities  of  his  ancestors,  nor  freed  himself 
from  his  bondage  to  their  instincts  and  automatic  reflexes,  is 
there  no  way  out  anywhere?  Is  there  perhaps  some  ground  for 
hope  and  consolation  in  the  thought  that  we,  of  the  twentieth 
century,  no  longer  see  ourselves,  Man,  as  something  final  and 
fixed?  Darwin  changed  Fate  from  a  static  sphinx  into  a  chame- 
leon flux.  Just  as  certainly  as  man  has  arisen  from  something 
whose  bones  alone  remain  as  reminders  of  his  existence,  we  are 
persuaded  man  himself  is  to  be  the  ancestor  of  another  creature, 
differing  as  much  from  him  as  he  from  the  Chimpanzi,  and  who, 
if  he  will  not  supplant  and  wipe  him  out,  will  probably  segregate 
him  and  allow  him  to  play  out  his  existence  in  cage  cities. 

The  vision  of  this  After-man  or  From-man  is  really  about  as 
helpful  to  us  as  the  water  of  the  oasis  mirage  is  to  the  lost  dying 
of  thirst  in  the  desert.  The  outcries  of  the  wretched  and  miser- 
able, the  gray-and-dreary  lived  din  an  unmanageable  tinnitus 
in  our  ears.  Like  God,  it  may  be  but  a  large,  vague  idea  toward 
which  we  grope  to  snuggle  up  against.  It  seems  implicit  in  the 
doctrines  of  evolution.  But  how  do  we  know  that  in  man  the 
spiral  of  life  has  not  reached  its  apex,  and  that  now,  even  now, 
the  vortices  of  its  descent  are  not  beginning?  How  do  we  know 
that  the  From-man  is  to  be  a  Superman  and  not  a  Subman? 
How  can  we  dare  to  hope  that  the  slave-beast-brute  is  to  give 
birth  to  an  heir,  fine  and  free  and  superior? 

We  do  not  know  and  we  have  every  indication  and  induction 
for  the  most  oppositely  contrary  conclusions.  Life  has  blun- 
dered supremely,  in,  while  making  brains  its  darling,  forgetting 
or  helplessly  surrendering  to  the  egoisms  of  alimentation.  So  it 
has  spawned  a  conflict  between  its  organs,  and  a  consequent 
impasse  in  which  the  lower  centres  drive  the  higher  pitilessly  into 
devising  means  and  instruments  for  the  suicide  of  the  whole. 

As  War  shows  plainly  to  the  most  stupidly  gross  imagination, 
the  germs  of  our  own  self-destruction  as  a  species  saturate  our 
blood.     The  probability  looms  with  almost  the  certainty  of  a 


ATTITUDES  TOWARD  HUMAN  NATURE  13 

syllogistic  deduction,  that  such  will  be  the  outcome  to  our  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  years  of  pain  upon  earth.  In  the  face  of 
that,  speculations  upon  a  comet  or  gaseous  emanations  hitting 
the  planet,  or  the  sun  growing  cold,  become  babyish  fancies.  How 
clearly  the  possibility  is  pointed  in  the  discussions  about  the  use 
in  the  next  War  of  bacterial  bombs  containing  the  bacilli  of 
cholera,  plague,  dysentery  and  many  others !  What  influenza  did 
in  destroying  millions,  they  can  repeat  a  thousand  times  and  ten 
thousand  times.  What  else  the  laboratories  will  bring  forth,  of 
which  no  man  dreams,  in  the  way  of  destructive  agents  acting  at 
long  distance,  upon  huge  masses  and  over  any  extent  of  territory, 
is  presaged  in  that  single  example.  But  besides  thus  willing,  by 
an  inner  necessity,  its  own  annihilation,  Life,  in  the  very  struc- 
ture and  machinery  of  its  being,  seems  caught  into  the  entangle- 
ments of  an  inescapable  net,  an  eternity-long  bondage  it  can 
never  rip,  to  flee  and  remake  itself  into  the  immortal  image  that 
is  its  God. 

And  so  there  go  by  the  board  the  last  alleviations  of  those  un- 
beatable optimists  who  would  soothe  their  aching  souls  with  at 
least  the  drop  of  comfort:  that  if  man  is  a  mortal  species,  with 
not  the  slightest  prospect  of  a  continuing  immortality,  not  to 
mention  a  glorious  future  and  destiny,  there  are  others.  Man, 
after  all,  may  be  simply  a  bad  habit  Life  will  succeed  in  shaking 
off.  No  philosophy  or  religion  can  afford  to  be  anthropocentric 
merely.  It  must  include  all  life  and  all  living  things  to  which  we 
are  blood-related.  There  are  other  species  or  latent  species  to 
take  up  the  torch  that  burned  poor  homo  sapiens  and  ascend  the 
heights.  The  ant  and  bee  may  yet  mutate  along  certain  lines 
that  would  make  them  the  masters  of  the  universe. 

But  no  matter  what  species  or  variety  gets  the  upper  hand  in 
the  struggle  for  survival  and  power,  the  implications  of  the 
qualities  necessary  to  victory  in  conflicts  of  individual  separate 
pieces  of  protoplasm  will  be  there.  Besides,  life  is  always  begot- 
ten of  life.  That  is  why  synthetic  protoplasm  is  nothing  but  a 
phrase.  It  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  something  alive,  possessed 
of  the  property  of  remembering,  that  is  not  possessed  of  a  store 
of  past  experiences.  You  can  no  more  think  of  getting  rid  of 
these  unconscious  memories  of  protoplasm  than  you  can  think 
of  getting  rid  of  the  wetness  of  water.  They  are  imbedded  in  the 
most  intimate  chemistry  of  the  primeval  ameba  as  well  as  in  our 
most  complex  tissues. 
The  memories  of  the  cold  lone  fish  and  the  hot  predatory  car- 


14        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

nivor  who  were  our  begetters,  may  haunt  us  to  the  end  of  time. 
The  bee  and  the  ant,  too,  have  woven  inextricably  into  the  woof 
of  their  cells  the  instincts  that  sooner  or  later  would  send  their 
brain  ganglia,  even  when  evolved  to  the  pitch  of  perfection,  to 
elaborating  the  self-and-species  murdering  inventions  and  dis- 
coveries that  are  apparently  destined  to  slay  us.  The  powers  of 
unconscious  memory  and  unlearnable  technique  of  reaction  to 
experience,  once  grooved,  thus  prove  the  great  gift  and  the 
eternal  curse  of  protoplasm.  Making  it  possible  for  it  to  be  and 
become  what  it  is  and  has,  they  have  also  made  it  forever  impos- 
sible for  it  to  be  or  become  its  own  contradiction. 

Add  to  this  unsloughable  remembrance  of  the  past,  for  better, 
for  worse,  the  secretive  consciousness  of  its  present  needs  every 
living  thing,  as  against  every  other  living  thing,  is  obsessed  with. 
As  a  peregrinating,  finite,  spatially  limited  being,  it  is  separated 
from  all  other  living  beings  by  inorganic,  dead  masses,  and  yet 
driven  to  contact  with  them  by  a  fundamental  impulse  to  as- 
similate them  into  itself,  and  make  them  part  of  itself.  That  as- 
similatory  urge  is  present  in  every  activity  from  coarse  ingestion 
as  food  to  the  moral  metabolism  of  the  hermit-saint  who  would 
influence  others  to  do  as  he. 

Fate  and  Anti-Fate 

In  effect  the  history  of  Life  resembles  the  life  history  of  the 
smallest  things  we  know  of,  the  electrons,  and  the  largest,  the 
great  suns  and  stars  of  space.  The  electron  begins,  perhaps,  as  a 
swirl  in  the  primeval  ether,  joins  other  electrons,  forms  colonies, 
cities,  empires,  elements  of  an  increasing  complexity,  through 
stages  of  a  relative  stability,  like  lead  or  gold.  Until  it  reaches 
the  stage  of  integration  which  wills  its  own  disintegration,  that 
we  have  been  taught  to  look  upon  with  proper  awe  and  reverence 
as  radium.  And  we  are  told  that  nebulae  wander  until  they 
collide  and  give  birth  to  stars,  stars  wander  and  collide  and  give 
birth  to  nebulae.  Life  begins  as  a  quivering  colloid,  goes  on 
painfully  to  build  a  brain,  which  automatically  refines  itself  to 
the  point  of  discovering  and  using  the  most  efficient  methods  of 
destroying  others,  and  by  a  boomerang  effect,  itself.    Fate! 

The  conception  of  Fate  was  a  Greek  idea.  The  classic  formula 
for  tragedy,  the  struggle  of  Man  with  the  sequence  of  cause  and 
effect  within  him  and  without,  that  is  so  utterly  beyond  his  grasp 
and  ken,  or  power  to  modify,  originated  with  them.    But  they 


ATTITUDES  TOWARD  HUMAN  NATURE  15 

must  also  be  given  the  credit  for  having  conceived  an  idea  and 
started  a  process  which,  at  first  slowly  and  gropingly,  now  slip- 
ping and  falling,  torn  and  bleeding  among  the  thorns  of  the  dark 
forest  of  human  motives,  presently  goes  on,  with  a  firmer,  more 
practiced,  more  confident  step,  to  emerge  into  the  light  as  the 
deliberate  Conqueror  of  Fate.  That  idea-process,  this  Anti-Fate 
is  Science.  | 

Science  began  with  the  adventures  of  free-thinking  speculators, 
who  revolted  against  religious  cosmogonies  and  superstitions. 
Sceptics  concerning  the  knowledge  that  was  the  accepted  mono- 
poly of  the  priesthood  must  have  existed  in  the  oldest  civilization 
we  know  anything  of,  more  than  twenty-five  thousand  years  ago, 
the  Aurignacians.  But  it  was  to  the  Greeks  that  we  owe  that 
amalgamation  of  curiosity  delivered  of  fear,  that  merger  of 
systematic  research  and  critical  thinking  untrammelled  by  social 
inhibitions  which  is  the  essence  of  modern  science.  Out  of 
them  has  come  the  great  Tree  of  Knowledge  of  our  time,  which  is, 
too,  the  only  Ygdrasil  of  Life,  undying  because  it  lives  upon 
successive  generations  of  human  brain  cells. 

Science,  as  the  pursuit  of  the  real,  began  with  very  small  things 
by  men  with  very  small  intentions.  Inventories,  collections  of 
isolated  data,  something  permanent  for  the  mind  out  of  the  flux 
of  transient  sensations,  little  tracks  and  foot  paths  in  the  jungle 
of  phenomena,  were  their  goal.  With  no  sense  of  themselves  as 
the  mightiest  of  master-builders,  cultivating  humility  toward 
their  material  at  any  rate,  the  little  men  ploughed  their  little 
fields,  striking  the  oil  of  a  great  generalization  or  classification 
or  explanation  with  no  fanfare  of  trumpets. 

First  as  freaks  and  cranks,  then  as  scholars  and  pedants,  then 
protected  and  perhaps  stimulated  under  the  competitive  royal 
patronage  as  societies  and  academies,  they  prepared  for  the 
harvest.  Comparing  them  to  pioneer  farmers  sowing  an  undevel- 
oped territory  is  really  totally  inadequate  and  inaccurate.  For 
the  most  part,  they  were  like  coral  makers,  laboriously  construct- 
ing, with  no  vision,  certainly  no  sustained  vision,  of  the  whole. 
To  the  practical  men  of  affairs,  the  shopkeepers  and  traders, 
the  land-owners  and  ship-owners,  the  soldiers  and  sailors,  the 
statesmen  and  politicians,  the  people  who  specialized  in  maneu- 
vering human  beings  and  materials,  they  were,  for  this  futile 
devotion  to  abstract  knowledge,  marked  ridiculous  and  absurd 
weaklings,  mollycoddles,  babies,  not  to  be  trusted  with  the  de- 
mands and  dangers  of  public  life. 


16        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

But  it  so  happened  remarkably  late  in  history  that  with  the 
discovery  of  the  possibilities  of  coal  there  was  a  great  boom  in 
the  demand  for  industrial  machinery.  At  the  same  time  there 
were  thrown  up  the  most  marvelous  advances  in  physics  and 
chemistry.  Recurring  War  became  not  the  clashes  of  mercenary 
armies,  but  the  catapulting  of  whole  nations  at  each  other.  New 
destructive  devices  out  of  the  laboratories  were  raised  into  the 
commandants  of  the  course  of  history.  Then  science  acquired 
prestige. 

Science  as  King,  science  as  power,  looms  as  the  great  new 
figure,  the  overshadowing  novel  factor,  in  practical  statesman- 
ship. Unlike  the  factor  X  in  the  traditional  equation,  it  is  the 
known  factor  par  excellence,  the  factor  by  which  the  value  of  all 
the  other  factors  of  human  life  will  be  ascertained  and  solved. 
As  knowledge  of  the  conditions  determining  all  life,  it  stands  as 
the  courageous  David  of  the  race  against  the  Goliath  territory 
of  the  uncontrollable  and  the  inevitable,  even  the  unknowable. 
Human  history  resolves  itself  into  the  drama:  Science  contra 
Fate.  Quite  a  change  from  the  vaudeville  show  of  the  restless 
personal  ambitions  of  vindictive  fools  and  greedy  scoundrels,  the 
mischief  and  adventures  of  half-witted  geniuses  and  licensed 
rogues  that  have  been  figures  of  the  prologue. 

The  future  of  science  has  become  the  future  of  the  race.  So 
much  of  an  inkling  of  the  truth  is  beginning  to  be  appreciated. 
That  is  ordinarily  taken  to  mean  that  the  process  by  which  the 
Wessex  man  became  the  New  York  and  London  man,  the  accumu- 
lation of  accidental  discoveries  and  inspired  inventions  of  scat- 
tered individuals,  will  go  on,  providing  a  succession  of  marvels 
and  miracles  for  the  careerist  and  his  retinue.  Not  only  is  he  to 
be  entertained  and  served  by  them,  but  any  commercial  value  will 
also  be  exploited  by  him.  The  natural  wonders  of  the  labora- 
tories have  taken  the  place  of  the  supernatural  absurdities  of  the 
medieval  mind  as  a  fillip  for  the  imagination  of  the  man  in  the 
street.  Even  spiritualism  apes  the  technique  of  the  physicist. 
The  credulity  of  reporters  alone  concerning  developments  in 
surgery,  for  example,  is  incredible.  There  is  enough  rot  published 
daily  for  a  brief  to  be  made  out  against  the  idolatry  of  science. 

The  Religion  of  Science 

Science  also  as  a  religion,  as  a  faith  to  bind  men  together,  as  a 
substitute  for  the  moribund  old  mythologies  and  theologies  which 


ATTITUDES  TOWARD  HUMAN  NATURE  17 

kept  them  sundered,  is  commencing  to  be  talked  of  in  a  more 
serious  tone.  The  wonder-maker  may  have  forced  upon  him, 
may  welcome,  the  honors  of  the  priest,  though  he  pose  as  the 
humble  slave  of  Nature  and  her  secrets.  Presently  the  founda- 
tions and  institutes,  which  coexist  with  the  cathedrals  and 
churches,  just  as  once  the  new  Christian  chapels  and  congregations 
stood  side  by  side  with  pagan  temples  and  heathen  shrines,  may 
oust  their  rivals,  and  assume  the  monopoly  of  ritual.  Should  its 
spirit  remain  fine  and  clear,  should  it  maintain  the  glorious 
promise  of  its  dawn,  should  its  high  priests  realize  the  perpetually 
widening  intimations  of  its  universal  triumph,  and  escape  the  ossi- 
fication that  has  overtaken  all  young  and  hopeful  things  and 
institutions,  the  real  foundation  for  a  future  of  the  species  would 
be  laid,  and  so  its  ultimate  suicide  prevented. 

The  time  has  gone  by,  however,  for  any  complacent  assurance 
that  the  redemption  of  mankind  is  to  be  attained  by  a  new 
religion  of  words.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  damnation  or  salva- 
tion of  an  individual  has  often  been  determined  by  a  religious 
crisis,  in  which  the  magic  of  words  have  worked  their  witchery. 
There  is  plenty  of  evidence  that  a  psychic  conversion  will  effect 
an  actual  revolution  in  the  whole  way  of  living  of  the  victim  or 
patient,  as  you  like  it.  William  James,  in  his  "Varieties  of 
Religious  Experience,"  established  that  pretty  definitely.  When 
it  comes  to  groups,  races,  nations,  the  outlook  is  wholly  different. 
There  is  a  conflict  of  so  many  and  diverse  habits  and  interests, 
beliefs  and  prejudices,  that  hope  for  some  common  merely  intel- 
lectual solvent  for  all  of  them  is  rather  forlorn.  If  at  all,  the 
resolution  of  the  conflict  will  come  by  a  pooling  of  actual  powers 
and  interests,  in  which  the  religion  of  science  will  play  the  great 
part  of  the  Liberator  of  mankind  from  the  whole  system  of  tor- 
ments that  have  made  the  way  of  all  flesh  a  path  of  rocks  along 
which  a  manacled  prisoner  crawls  to  his  doom. 

Science  and  Human  Nature 

Science  has  a  future.  The  religion  of  science  has  a  future. 
Can  science  assure  us  that  human  nature,  in  spite  of  its  beast- 
brute-slave  origins  holds  the  possibility  of  a  genuine  transforma- 
tion of  its  texture?  Can  Fate's  stranglehold  upon  us  be  broken? 
There  will  be  certainly  a  tremendous,  an  overwhelming  increase 
in  the  general  stock  of  informations  we  call  physics  and  chemistry 
and  biology.    An  abundance  of  new  comforts,  novel  sensations, 


18        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

fresh  experiences,  and  breath-bereaving  devices  that  will  thrill 
or  heal,  will  follow  of  course  in  their  wake.  The  religion  of 
science  will  infiltrate  and  penetrate  and  permeate  by  its  capillary 
action  the  barbaric  superstitions,  the  ridiculous  rites,  the  un- 
sanitary insanities  of  our  social  systems. 

But  what  about  the  poor  human  soul  itself,  with  its  inherent 
vices  and  virtues,  its  fears  and  indulgences,  audacities  and  nobili- 
ties, jealousies,  shames,  blunders,  incurable  likes,  cravings  and 
diseases?  Can  science  change  the  texture  of  the  slave  and 
careerist,  if  they  represent  the  subnormal  and  the  abnormal? 
What  about  the  Becky  Sharps,  the  Mark  Tapleys,  and  Tom 
Pinches,  not  to  speak  of  the  Nicholas  Nicklebys  and  the  Hamlets, 
the  Micawbers  and  the  Falstaffs?  What  future  have  they  as 
they  recur  in  the  generations?  Indeed,  does  not  the  very  fact  of 
their  recurrence,  of  them  and  of  the  hundreds  of  other  types 
and  temperaments,  point  implacably  to  the  conclusion  to  which 
the  historian,  the  philosopher  and  the  biologist  have  driven  us: 
that  in  the  grip  of  an  endless  chain  of  pasts  the  human  soul  has 
no  future? 

That  may  appear  an  irrelevant,  an  immaterial,  and  an  incom- 
petent question  to  our  men  of  business  and  affairs.  Human  nature, 
as  fallen  angel  or  ape  parvenu,  has  always  looked  upon  itself 
as  fixed  for  eternity.  "Human  nature  never  changes,  and  is 
everywhere  and  always  will  be  the  same."  "As  a  man  is  built." 
"Bred  in  the  bone."  These  are  the  axioms  of  our  social  and 
economic  Euclids.  Indeed,  Man,  assuming  that  his  nature  is  as 
uncontrollable  as  the  course  of  the  stars,  has  limited  his  research 
into  the  substance  of  freedom  to  a  groping  for  an  understanding 
of  the  adequate  external  conditions  of  liberty.  Thus  he  set 
himself  another  of  the  insoluble  problems  he  seems  to  delight  in 
by  neglecting  the  most  important  factor  in  the  equation.  Yet 
the  invisible  soul  of  man,  ignored,  as  a  variable,  varying  quantity, 
has  upset  all  societies  and  constitutions,  and  all  schemes  of  bond- 
age as  well  as  of  freedom. 

For  freedom,  it  becomes  obvious  as  soon  as  it  is  clearly  stated, 
is  sheer  impossibility  until  the  internal  conditions  of  his  nature 
are  ascertained,  and  the  way  paved  for  their  control.  A  simple 
illustration  of  the  working  of  this  principle  is  supplied  by  our 
democracies,  grossly  pretenders.  How  can  a  democracy  be  pos- 
sible without  a  knowledge  of  the  control  of  the  individually  and 
socially  subnormal,  who,  since  they  offer  themselves  to  exploita- 


ATTITUDES  TOWARD  HUMAN  NATURE  19 

tion  by  the  careerists,  prove  themselves  the  weak  links  in  the 
chain  of  co-operation  with  an  equal  opportunity  for  all,  that  is  the 
democratic  ideal?  In  what  does  the  equality  or  inequality  of  men 
consist?  Just  what  are  the  qualities  necessary  for  successful 
competition,  or  if  you  will,  co-living,  of  man  with  his  fellow-men, 
and  how  and  why  do  they  operate?  No  freedom,  independent 
of  the  servile  repetitions  of  history  and  heredity,  is  conceivable 
until  these  inquiries  have  been  elaborately  carried  out  toward  a 
certain  working  finality. 

The  Promises  of  Eugenics 

There  are,  to  be  sure,  the  claims  and  assertions  and  negative 
achievements  of  the  youngest  of  the  sciences,  eugenics.  They 
are  invincible  optimists,  the  eugenists:  it  is  perhaps  a  case  of  a 
virtue  born  of  necessity.  Thus  Francis  Galton,  in  the  preface 
to  the  ''Bible  of  Eugenics,"  his  essays  on  Hereditary  Genius,  de- 
clares: "There  is  nothing  either  in  the  history  of  domestic  animals 
or  in  that  of  evolution  to  make  us  doubt  that  a  race  of  sane  men 
may  be  formed  who  shall  be  as  much  superior,  mentally  and 
morally,  to  the  Modern  European,  as  the  Modern  European  is  to 
the  lowest  of  the  Negro  races."  High  hopes  beat  in  this  declara- 
tion. But  Galton  could  not  have  foreseen  that  the  signing  of  a 
scrap  of  paper  by  one  of  the  Modern  Europeans  would  let  loose 
all  the  other  Modern  Europeans  in  a  pandemonium  of  horrors 
the  lowest  of  the  Negro  races  could  not  but  envy  as  a  master- 
piece of  its  kind.  It  seemed  to  be  suspiciously  easy  for  him  to 
accept  an  excuse  to  slide  down  the  dizzy  height  he  had  climbed 
from  the  African  level. 

The  eugenists  would  put  their  trust  in  the  encouraged  breeding 
of  the  best  and  the  compulsory  sterility  of  the  rest.  But  what  is 
the  best,  and  who  are  the  best,  and  where  will  you  find  them  when 
they  are  not  inextricably  emulsified  with  the  worst?  It's  a  long, 
long  way  to  the  day  of  a  segregating  out  and  in  of  Mendelian 
unit-characters.  Besides,  this  is  a  strange  world  of  choices.  No- 
body is  to  be  considered  worthy  of  parenthood  until  he  has  fallen 
in  love  properly.  Nobody  who  would  permit  an  outsider's  deci- 
sion as  to  when  he  was  properly  in  love  would  be  worth  thirty 
cents  as  a  parent.  There  is  the  ultimate  dilemma  of  the  eugenist 
— the  dilemma  which  destroys  forever  the  dream  of  a  control  of 
parenthood  from  the  point  of  view  of  merely  psychic  values. 


20        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

New  Psychology 

There  are  the  claims  and  outcries  and  promises  of  the 
psychologists — the  specialists  in  the  probing  of  the  human  soul 
and  human  nature.  In  our  time,  the  demand  for  a  dynamic 
psychology  of  process  and  becoming,  psychology  with  an  energy 
in  it,  has  split  them  into  two  schools — the  emphasizers  of  instinct 
and  the  subconscious,  the  McDougallians,  and  the  pleaders  for 
sex  and  the  unconscious,  the  Freudians.  A  synthesis  between 
these  two  groups  is  latent,  since  their  differences  are  those  of 
horizon  merely.  For  the  McDougallians  look  upon  the  world 
with  two  eyes  and  see  it  whole  and  broad — the  Freudians  see 
through  their  telescope  a  circular  field  and  exclaim  that  they 
behold  the  universe.    It  is  true  that  they  own  a  telescope. 

But  what  has  either  to  offer  our  quest  for  light  on  the  future 
of  the  species?  Nothing  very  much.  Thus,  to  turn  to  the  dis- 
ciples of  McDougall.  In  a  recent  volume  entitled,  "Human 
Nature  and  its  Remaking,"  Professor  William  Ernest  Hocking 
of  Harvard  contends  that  Man,  all  axioms  about  his  nature  to 
the  contrary,  is  but  a  creature  of  habit,  and  so  the  most  plastic 
of  living  things,  since  habit  is  self-controlled  and  self-determined. 
By  the  self-determination  of  the  habits  of  the  race  will  the  new 
freedom  be  reborn.  It  sounds  old,  very  old.  And  pathetic  be- 
cause it  recognizes  original  and  permanent  ingredients  of  our 
composition  in  the  words  pugnacity,  greed,  sex,  fear,  as  elements 
to  be  accepted  in  any  system  of  the  principles  of  civilization. 
It  is  the  bubble  of  education  all  over  again.  What  in  our  cells  is 
pugnacity?  What  in  our  bones  is  greed?  What  in  our  blood  is 
sex?  What  in  our  nerves  is  fear?  Until  these  inquiries  are 
respected,  conscious  character  building  or  even  stock  breeding 
must  remain  the  laughing  stock  of  the  smoking  rooms  and  the 
regimental  barracks. 

Come  the  Freudians.  To  them  we  owe  the  aeroplanes  to  a  new 
universe.  They  have  opened  up  for  us  the  geology  of  the  soul. 
Layer  upon  layer,  cross-section  upon  cross-section  have  been  piled 
before  us.  And  what  a  melodramatic  cinema  of  thrills  and 
shivers,  villains  and  heroes,  heroines  and  adventuresses  have  they 
not  unfolded.  Each  motive,  as  the  stiff  psychologist  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  with  his  plaster-of-Paris  categories  and  pigeon 
holes  and  classifications,  labelled  the  teeming  creatures  of  the 
mind,  becomes  anon  a  strutting  actor  upon  a  multitudinous 
stage,  and  an  audience  in  a  crowded  playhouse.     Scenes  are 


ATTITUDES  TOWARD  HUMAN  NATURE  21 

enacted  the  febrile  fancy  of  a  Poe  or  a  de  Maupassant  never 
could  have  conjured.  The  complex,  the  neurosis,  the  compulsion, 
the  obsession,  the  slip  of  speech,  the  trick  of  manner,  the  devotion 
of  a  life-time,  the  culture  of  a  nation  all  furnish  bits  for  the 
Freudian  mosaic.  Attractions  and  inhibitions,  repulsions  and 
suppressions  are  held  up  as  the  ultimate  pulling  and  pushing 
forces  of  human  nature. 

But  is  the  problem  solved?  Is  not  human  nature  primarily 
animal  nature?  And  do  we  so  thoroughly  understand  this  animal 
nature?  Does  not  all  this  material  of  Freudianism  consist  of 
variations  upon  social  burdens  imposed  on  the  original  human 
nature?  To  be  sure,  at  every  moment  of  life,  choices  have  to  be 
made,  and  choice  involves  the  clashing  of  instincts  and  motives, 
with  victory  for  one  or  some,  and  defeat  for  the  others.  But  the 
Freudian  material  per  se  — the  sex  material — is  it  not  merely  the 
by-product  of  a  certain  state  of  society?  A  sane  society  would 
eliminate  nearly  all  of  Freudian  disease,  but  still  have  original 
human  nature  upon  its  hands.  Why  is  it  that  of  two  individuals 
exposed  to  the  same  situation,  one  will  develop  a  complex,  the 
other  will  remain  immune?  The  only  soil  we  know  of,  the  real 
foundation  stones  of  our  being  and  living,  are  the  cells  we  are 
made  of.  Tell  me  the  cellular  basis  of  a  complex,  and  I  will  grant 
that  you  have  arrived  at  some  real  knowledge. 

Way  for  the  Physiologist 

There  has  grown  up,  contemporaneously  with  the  teachings  of 
Freud,  a  body  of  discoveries  and  knowledge  in  physiology,  con- 
cerning these  factors,  which  is  like  a  long  sword  of  light  illumi- 
nating a  pitch-black  spot  in  the  night.  The  dark  places  in  human 
nature  seem  to  have  become  the  sole  monopoly  of  the  Freudians 
and  their  psychology.  But  only  seemingly.  For  all  this  time 
the  physiologist  has  been  working.  Beginning  with  a  candle  and 
now  holding  in  his  hands  the  most  powerful  arc-lights,  he  has 
explored  two  regions,  the  sympathetic  nervous  system  and  the 
glands  of  internal  secretion,  and  has  come  upon  data  which  in 
due  course  will  render  a  good  many  of  the  Freudian  dicta  obso- 
lete. Not  that  the  Freudian  fundamentals  will  be  scrapped  com- 
pletely. But  they  will  have  to  fit  into  the  great  synthesis  which 
must  form  the  basis  of  any  control  of  the  future  of  human  nature. 
That  future  belongs  to  the  physiologist.  Already  his  achieve- 
ments provide  the  foundations.    I  propose  in  the  following  chap- 


22        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

ters  to  sketch  the  history  and  outline  the  elements  of  this  new 
knowledge,  and  then  to  glimpse  some  of  the  larger  human  reac- 
tions to  it.  A  good  deal  of  this  new  knowledge  is  not  altogether 
new.  A  number  of  the  isolated  facts  have  been  known  and 
talked  about  for  more  than  two  generations.  But  the  newer 
additions,  and  the  light  they  have  thrown  upon  old  problems 
present  the  opportunity  for  a  synthesis,  which  must  sooner  or 
later  be  made. 

The  Chemistry  of  the  Soul 

Besides,  it  is  time  that  the  secrets  of  the  laboratories  stepped 
out  into  the  market  place,  unashamed.  Imaginative  man  has 
played  for  ages  immemorial  with  wondrous  fairy  tales  and  fan- 
cies of  what  he  would  achieve.  The  sciences  of  physics  and 
chemistry  have  made  every-day  commonplace  realities  out  of  his 
radiant  dreams.  One  need  not  repeat  the  cliches  of  our  editors. 
But  the  analogy  is  there  nevertheless.  No  control  over  heat  and 
light  and  electricity,  today  our  slaves,  was  possible  until  physics 
and  chemistry  took  them  in  hand.  No  control  of  the  human  soul 
is  possible  until  it  too  will  be  taken  in  hand  by  them.  We  may 
now  look  forward  to  a  real  future  for  mankind  because  we  have 
before  us  the  beginnings  of  a  chemistry  of  human  nature.  The 
internal  secretions,  with  their  influence  upon  brain  and  nervous 
system  as  well  as  every  other  part  of  the  body  corporation,  as 
essentially  blood-circulating  chemical  substances,  have  been  dis- 
covered the  real  governors  and  arbiters  of  instincts  and  disposi- 
tions, emotions  and  reactions,  characters  and  temperaments,  good 
and  bad.  A  huge  complex  of  evidence,  as  various,  complicated 
and  obscure  as  human  nature  itself,  supports  that  fundamental 
law. 

The  chemistry  of  the  soul!  Magnificent  phrase!  It's  a  long, 
long  way  to  that  goal.  The  exact  formula  is  as  yet  far  beyond 
our  reach.  But  we  have  started  upon  the  long  journey  and  we 
shall  get  there.  Then  will  Man  truly  become  the  experimental 
animal  of  the  future,  experimenting  not  only  with  the  external 
conditions  of  his  life,  but  with  the  constituents  of  his  very  nature 
and  soul.  The  chemical  conditions  of  his  being,  including 
the  internal  secretions,  are  the  steps  of  the  ladder  by  which 
he  will  climb  to  those  dizzy  heights  where  he  will  stretch  out 
his  hands  and  find  himself  a  God.  Modern  knowledge  of  these 
chemical  substances,  circulating  in  the  blood,  and  affecting  every 


ATTITUDES  TOWARD  HUMAN  NATURE  23 

cell  of  the  body,  dates  back  scarce  half  a  century.  But  already 
the  paths  blazed  by  the  pioneers  have  led  to  the  exploration  of 
great  countries.  The  thyroid  gland,  the  pituitary  gland,  the 
adrenal  glands,  the  thymus,  the  pineal,  the  sex  glands,  have 
yielded  secrets.  And  certain  great  postulates  have  been  estab- 
lished. The  life  of  every  individual,  normal  or  abnormal,  his 
physical  appearance,  and  his  psychic  traits,  are  dominated 
largely  by  his  internal  secretions.  All  normal  as  well  as  ab- 
normal individuals  are  classifiable  according  to  the  internal 
secretions  which  rule  in  their  make-up.  Individuals,  families, 
nations  and  races  show  definite  internal  secretion  traits,  which 
stamp  them  with  the  quality  of  difference.  The  internal  secretion 
formula  of  an  individual  may,  in  the  future,  constitute  his  meas- 
urement which  will  place  him  accurately  in  the  social  system. 

"More  and  more  we  are  forced  to  realize  that  the  general  form 
and  external  appearance  of  the  human  body  depends,  to  a  large 
extent,  upon  the  functioning,  during  the  early  developmental 
period,  of  the  endocrine  glands.  Our  stature,  the  kinds  of  faces 
we  have,  the  length  of  our  arms  and  legs,  the  shape  of  the  pelvis, 
the  color  and  consistency  of  the  integument,  the  quantity  and 
regional  location  of  our  subcutaneous  fat,  the  amount  and  distri- 
bution of  hair  on  our  bodies,  the  tonicity  of  our  muscles,  the 
sound  of  the  voice,  and  the  size  of  the  larynx,  the  emotions  to 
which  our  exterior  gives  expression.  All  are  to  a  certain  extent 
conditioned  by  the  productivity  of  our  glands  of  internal  secre- 
tion." (Llewellys  F.  Barker,  Johns  Hopkins  University,  1st 
President  of  Association  for  Study  of  Internal  Secretions.) 

The  implications  for  the  statesman,  the  educator,  the  voca- 
tional expert,  the  student  of  the  neurotic  and  of  genius,  of 
delinquents,  deficients  and  criminals,  the  explorers  of  the  excep- 
tional and  the  commonplace,  the  understanding  of  the  poetic  and 
kinetic,  base  and  dull  types,  as  well  as  of  those  two  master  inter- 
ests of  mankind,  Sex  and  War,  are  manifest.  The  mystery  of 
the  individual,  in  all  his  distinct  uniqueness,  begins  to  be  pene- 
trated. And  so  every  phase  of  social  life,  in  which  the  individual 
is  at  bottom  the  final  determinant,  must  be  reviewed  in  the  light 
of  the  new  knowledge.  History  may  be  examined  from  an  en- 
tirely new  angle.  The  biographies  of  our  Heroes  of  the  Past,  in 
the  Carlylean  sense,  will  bear  reinspection.  Even  Utopias  will 
have  to  be  revised. 

The  internal  secretions  constitute  and  determine  much  of  the 
inherited  powers  of  the  individual  and  their  development.    They 


24        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

control  physical  and  mental  growth  and  all  the  metabolic  proc- 
esses of  fundamental  importance.  They  dominate  all  the  vital 
functions  during  the  three  cycles  of  life.  They  co-operate  in  an 
intimate  relationship  which  may  be  compared  to  an  interlocking 
directorate.  A  derangement  of  their  function,  causing  an  in- 
sufficiency of  them,  an  excess,  or  an  abnormality,  upsets  the  entire 
equilibrium  of  the  body,  with  transforming  effects  upon  the  mind 
and  the  organs.  In  short,  they  control  human  nature,  and  who- 
ever controls  them,  controls  human  nature. 

The  control  of  the  glands  of  internal  secretion  waits  upon  our 
knowledge  of  them,  the  nature  and  precise  composition  of  the 
substances  manufactured  by  them,  and  just  what  they  do  to  the 
cells.  Envisaging  the  future,  that  knowledge  today  is  meagre. 
Looking  back  fifty  years,  it  becomes  an  amazing  achievement  and 
revelation.  It  is  worth  our  while  to  survey  the  accomplished, 
and  to  trace  its  general  human  significance.  For  a  certain 
tangible  degree  of  knowledge  and  control  has  been  attained  and 
should  be  part  of  the  average  citizen's  equipment  in  dealing  with 
the  everyday  problems  of  his  life. 

The  Attitude  of  the  Laboratory 

A  certain  number  of  so-called  experimental  physiologists,  that 
is,  the  physiologists  of  the  animal  laboratory,  who  will  have  noth- 
ing but  syllogistic  deductions  and  quantitative  determinations 
based  upon  animal  experiments  as  the  data  of  their  science,  will 
be  apt  to  look  askance  upon  the  preceding  paragraphs,  and  those 
which  will  follow.  To  them,  any  man  who  relates  the  internal 
secretions  to  anything,  outside  of  the  routineer's  paths,  puts  his 
reputation  at  stake,  if  he  has  any  reputation  at  all  to  start  in 
with.  They  would  have  us  deliver  a  Scotch  verdict  upon  all  the 
questions  which  arise  as  soon  as  one  attempts  to  take  in  the 
more  general  significance  of  the  glands  of  internal  secretion.  This, 
even  though  the  more  general  implications  concerning  the  effects 
of  their  products,  the  relations  of  them  to  growth  and  develop- 
ment, nutrition  and  energy,  environmental  reactions  and  resist- 
ance to  disease,  as  well  as  the  grand  complex  of  intelligence,  are 
admittedly  well  ascertained  in  some  directions. 

The  method  of  absolute  measurement  in  science  has  yielded 
miracles.  For  some  thousands  of  years,  an  isolated  indi- 
vidual, here  and  there  or  an  isolated  institution  have  devoted 
themselves  to  the  task,  struggling  not  only  with  their  own  weak- 


ATTITUDES  TOWARD  HUMAN  NATURE  25 

nesses,  but  with  religious  and  political  dogmas  which  spoiled  and 
vitiated  even  the  beginnings  of  their  efforts.  When,  in  the  seven- 
teenth century,  men  associated  themselves  in  research,  for  free 
communication  and  discussion  of  their  findings,  a  great  invention 
came  alive.  Close  on  its  heels  was  born  the  exact  experimental 
method.  Amazing  triumphs  were  born  of  that  marriage  which 
swept  away  before  it  ignorance  and  superstition  and  prejudice. 
Its  children  and  grandchildren  have  flourished  and  grown  strong 
and  mighty.  They  have  transmuted  the  material  conditions  of 
life.  Certainly  all  the  laurels  belong  to  the  method  of  absolute, 
measured  observations. 

Yet  all  this  time  the  old  method  of  inductive  observation  has 
not  gone  dead.  Most  magnificent  triumph  of  nineteenth  century 
science,  the  evolution  theory  of  Charles  Darwin,  remains  the 
most  conspicuous  instance  of  clarification  of  thought  in  human 
history.  That  work  was  the  outcome  of  an  attempt  to  relate 
and  interpret  a  collection  of  observations  on  species  and  their 
variations,  that  had  long  lain  to  hand,  a  mixture  without  a 
solvent.  Darwin  saw  certain  generalizations  as  solvents,  and 
behold!  a  clear  solution  out  of  the  mud.  But  it  was  by  piling 
evidence  upon  evidence,  co-ordinating  isolated  facts  not  directly 
associated,  that  the  towering  structure  was  erected.  There  is  no 
prettier  sample  extant  of  the  powers  of  the  inductive  method. 

Not  that  there  are  no  triumphs  of  the  quantitative  method  in 
store  for  the  biologist.  Already,  the  materials  of  the  Mendelians 
have  become  basic  parts  of  his  structure.  And  today,  in  pursuit 
of  the  solutions  of  hundreds  of  the  problems  of  living  matter, 
chemists  and  physiologists  are  employing  the  most  precise  stand- 
ards, units,  and  measures  of  the  physical  sciences.  Blood  chem- 
istry of  our  time  is  a  marvel,  undreamed  of  a  generation  ago. 
Also,  these  achievements  are  a  perfect  example  of  the  accom- 
plished fact  contradicting  a  priori  prediction  and  criticism.  For 
it  was  one  of  the  accepted  dogmas  of  the  nineteenth  century  that 
the  phenomena  of  the  living  could  never  be  subjected  to  accurate 
quantitative  analysis. 

However  desirable  the  purely  quantitative  experimental 
methods  may  be,  they  naturally  need  always  to  be  preceded  by 
the  qualitative  studies  of  direct  observations.  Inevitablj''  there 
will  be  numberless  errors,  apparent  and  real  inconsistencies  and 
contradictions,  and  ideas  that  will  have  to  be  discarded.  Just 
the  same  there  is  no  other  method  of  progress.  Every  bit  of 
evidence  points  towards  the  internal  secretions  as  the  holders  of 


26        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

the  secrets  of  our  inmost  being.  They  are  the  well  springs  of  life, 
the  dynamos  of  the  organism.  In  trailing  their  scent  we  appear 
to  be  upon  the  track  not  only  of  the  chemistry  of  our  bodies,  but 
of  the  chemistry  of  our  very  souls.  An  increasing  host  of  facts 
and  studies  marshal  themselves  solidly  for  that  declaration. 
Endeavor  to  conceive  the  consequences  and  possibilities  for  the 
future.  A  synthesis  of  the  known  in  the  field  provides  even  now 
means  of  understanding  and  control  of  the  perplexities  of  human 
nature  and  life  that  are  like  a  vista  seen  from  a  mountain  top 
after  the  lifting  of  a  fog. 

The  most  precious  bit  of  knowledge  we  possess  today  about 
Man  is  that  he  is  the  creature  of  his  glands  of  internal  secretion. 
That  is,  Man  as  a  distinctive  organism  is  the  product,  the  by- 
product, of  a  number  of  cell  factories  which  control  the  parts 
of  his  make-up.  Much  as  the  different  divisions  of  an  automobile 
concern  produce  the  different  parts  of  a  car.  These  chemical 
factories  consist  of  cells,  manufacture  special  substances,  which 
act  upon  the  other  cells  of  the  body  and  so  start  and  determine 
the  countless  processes  we  call  Life.  Life,  body  and  soul  emerge 
from  the  activities  of  the  magic  ooze  of  their  silent  chemistry 
precisely  as  a  tree  of  tin  crystals  arises  from  the  chemical  reac- 
tions started  in  a  solution  of  tin  salts  by  an  electric  current. 

Man  is  regulated  by  his  Glands  of  Internal  Secretion.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  third  decade  of  the  twentieth  century,  after  he 
had  struggled,  for  we  know  at  least  fifty  thousand  years,  to 
define  and  know  himself,  that  summary  may  be  accepted  as  the 
truth  about  himself.  It  is  a  far-reaching  induction,  but  a  valid 
induction,  supported  by  a  multitude  of  detailed  facts. 

Amazingly  enough,  the  incontestable  evidence,  that  first 
pointed  to,  and  then  proved  up  to  the  hilt,  this  answer  to  the 
question:  What  is  Man?  has  been  gathered  in  less  than  the  last 
fifty  years.  Darwin  and  Huxley,  and  Spencer,  who  first  opened 
men's  eyes  to  their  origins,  were  ignorant  of  the  very  existence 
of  some  of  them,  and  had  not  the  faintest  notion  or  suspicion  of 
the  real  importance  or  function  of  any  of  them. 

The  Prejudices  of  Philosophers 

Now,  there  are  certain  prejudices  and  problems  which  appear 
to  be  rudely  brushed  away  by  the  dogmatic  arrogance  of  the 
principle  stated.  What,  you  say,  is  Man  but  an  affair  of  his 
peculiar  gland  chemistry?    But  what  of  mind,  soul,  conscious- 


ATTITUDES  TOWARD  HUMAN  NATURE  27 

ness?  Still  another  of  these  pathetically  one-sided  and  superficial 
theories  of  man  as  a  machine  pure  and  simple  which  would 
make  him  the  most  complicated  of  mechanisms,  a  marvel  of 
intricate  parts,  but  would  deprive  him  of  his  essence  as  self- 
conscious  unique  in  the  universe.  Man,  thinking  man,  at  any 
rate,  dreads  to  lose  the  cherished  impregnable  conviction  that  he 
is  something  apart,  inherently,  and  therefore  infinitely  different 
from  every  other  phenomenon  in  the  range  of  his  cosmos. 

A  thorough  dissection  of  the  relation  and  attitude  toward 
psychic  material  of  the  consistent  physiologist,  who  refuses  to 
deal  in  contradictory  terms,  would  lead  us  a  little  too  far.  So 
would  the  reconciliation  between  the  claims  of  mind  and  the 
concept  of  the  organism  as  a  system  of  chemical  reactions.  The 
most  fundamental  aspects  of  that  herculean  task,  warned  by  the 
sign,  No  Trespassing,  we  shall  leave  to  the  metaphysicians.  The 
influence  of  the  glands  of  internal  secretion  upon  the  mind  we 
must  consider,  but  at  present  postpone.  Yet  the  hot-headed  con- 
tenders on  both  sides  may  be  reminded  of  certain  facts. 

We  live  in  the  most  iconoclastic  of  ages.  There  are  sane 
people  alive  today  going  quietly  about  their  business  who  deny 
the  very  existence  of  consciousness.  These  heretics  of  course 
pooh-pooh  absolutely  the  lions  of  metaphysics.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  may  be  pointed  out  to  our  mechanists  who  believe  in 
mechanism  to  the  bitter  end,  that  even  if  man  can  be  described 
entirely  as  a  mere  transformer  of  energy,  there  is  no  reason  why 
he  cannot  also  be  described  as  a  transformer  of  energy  plus 
someone  who  makes  use  of  the  transformer  and  of  the  energy 
transformed.  The  stone  wall  before  the  honest  mechanist  is  the 
abolition  of  purpose,  and  design,  an  old  insoluble  problem  upon 
his  premises.  Preach,  until  you  are  blue  in  the  face,  behaviorist 
tropisms,  in  which  man  is  pushed  and  pulled  about  in  his  environ- 
ment as  are  iron  filings  in  a  magnetic  field.  Think  up  objective 
physiologies  in  which  your  life  and  mine  become  a  series  of  con- 
catenated influences  and  compound  reflexes.  Play  with  words 
like  the  concentration  reflex  when  you  mean  idea,  and  the  sym- 
bolic reflex  when  you  mean  language.  But  your  most  rigid 
nomenclature  will  never  abolish  the  mystic  personal  purpose 
in  the  equation,  no  matter  how  low  the  step  in  the  animal  series 
to  which  you  descend.  The  declaration  that  a  man  is  dominated 
by  certain  glands  within  his  body  should  not  be  taken  to  give 
aid  and  comfort  to  those  who  would  banish  mind  from  the 
universe. 


CHAPTER  I 

HOW  THE  GLANDS  OF  INTERNAL  SECRETION  WERE 

DISCOVERED 

Just  what  are  the  glands  of  internal  secretion?  And  how  have 
we  become  possessed  of  whatever  information  about  them  we 
have?  A  brief  review  of  how  the  idea  of  a  gland  of  internal  secre- 
tion came  into  the  human  mind  and  of  the  contributions  that 
have  converged  into  a  single  body  of  knowledge  is  worth  while. 

A  gland  is  a  collection  of  cells  (those  viscous  globules  which 
are  the  units  of  all  tissues  and  organs).  It  manufactures  sub- 
stances intended  for  a  particular  effect  upon  the  body  economy. 
The  effect  may  be  either  local  or  upon  the  body  as  a  whole. 

Originally,  a  gland  meant  something  in  the  body  which  was 
seen  to  make  something  else,  generally  a  juice  or  a  liquid  mix- 
ture of  some  sort.  A  classical  example  is  the  salivary  glands 
elaborating  saliva.  The  microscope  has  shown  us  that  every 
gland  is  a  chemical  factory  in  which  the  cells  are  the  workers. 
The  product  of  the  gland  work  is  its  secretion.  Thus  the  sweat 
glands  of  the  skin  secrete  the  perspiration  as  their  secretion,  the 
lachrymal  glands  of  the  eyes  the  tears  as  theirs.  The  collec- 
tivism of  management  and  control  is  the  only  essential  difference 
between  them  and  the  modern  soap  factory  or  T.N.T.  plant. 

Man  as  a  carnivor,  and  as  a  consequent  anatomist,  has  been 
acquainted  with  these  more  superficially  placed  glands  for  some 
thousands  of  years.  During  all  this  time  and  during  the  epoch 
of  the  achievements  of  gross  anatomy,  it  was  believed  that  the 
secretions  of  all  glands  were  poured  out  upon  some  surface  of 
the  body.  Either  an  exterior  surface  like  the  skin,  or  some  in- 
terior surface,  the  various  mucous  membranes.  This  was  sup- 
ported by  the  discovery  of  canal-like  passage  ways  leading  from 
the  gland  to  the  particular  surface  where  its  secretion  was  to 
act.  These  corridors,  the  secretory  or  excretory  ducts,  are  pres- 
ent, for  example,  in  the  liver,  conducting  the  bile  to  the  small 
intestine.  Devices  of  transportation  fit  happily  into  a  com- 
parison of  a  gland  to  a  chemical  factory,  corresponding  thus 
closely  to  the  tramways  and  railroads  of  our  industrial  centers. 

28 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  WERE  DISCOVERED  29 

Little  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago,  it  was  observed  that 
certain  organs,  like  the  thyroid  body  in  the  neck,  and  the  adrenal 
capsules  in  the  abdomen,  hitherto  neglected  because  their  func- 
tion was  hopelessly  obscure,  had  a  glandular  structure.  As  in  so 
much  scientific  advance,  the  discovery  or  improvement  of  a  new 
instrument  or  method,  a  fresh  tool  of  research,  was  responsible. 
The  perfection  of  the  microscope  was  the  reason  this  time. 

If  one  wishes  to  trace  the  idea  of  internal  secretion  by  cells  to 
an  individual,  it  is  convenient,  if  not  pedantic,  to  give  the  credit 
to  Theophile  de  Bordeu,  a  famous  physician  of  Paris  in  the 
eighteenth  century.  Bordeu  came  to  Paris  as  a  brilliant  pro- 
vincial in  his  early  twenties  and  by  the  charm  of  his  manner 
and  daring  therapy  fought  his  way  to  the  most  exclusive  aristo- 
cratic practice  of  the  court.  Naturally  a  courtier,  taking  to  the 
intrigues  of  the  royal  court  like  a  duck  to  water,  making  enemies 
on  every  hand  as  well  as  friends,  and  with  a  fastidious  and 
impatient  clientele,  he  yet  found  time  to  dabble  in  the  wonders 
of  the  newly  perfected  microscope  and  to  speculate  upon  the 
meaning  of  the  novelties  revealed  by  it  in  the  tissues.  He  coined 
the  thought  of  a  gland  secretion  into  the  blood. 

It  was  in  the  year  1749  that  he  came  to  Paris  from  the 
Pyrenees,  a  young  medical  graduate,  destined  to  become  the  most 
fashionable  practitioner  of  his  time.  At  the  age  of  twenty-three 
he  was  holding  the  professorship  of  anatomy  at  his  alma  mater, 
Montpelier,  where  his  father  was  a  successful  physician.  At 
twenty-five  he  was  elected  corresponding  member  of  the  Royal 
Academy  of  Sciences.  A  handsome  presence  and  a  Tartarin  de 
Tarascon  disposition  assured  his  success  from  the  start.  The 
medical  world  was  then  composed  of  the  emulsion  of  charlatanry 
and  science  Moliere  ridiculed.  Success  stimulated  envy  and 
jealousy.  One  of  the  richest  of  the  older  medical  men  set  himself 
the  job  of  procuring  his  scalp.  On  a  trumped-up  charge  of  steal- 
ing jewels  from  a  dead  patient — a  favorite  accusation  against 
the  doctors  of  the  eighteenth  century — he  had  Bordeu's  license 
taken  away  from  him.  The  good  graces  of  certain  women  to 
whom  Bordeu  had  always  appealed,  and  who  indeed  supplied 
the  funds  to  get  him  started  in  Paris,  rammed  through  two  acts 
of  Parliament  to  reinstate  him.  Nothing  daunted,  he  returned 
to  his  quest  for  a  court  clientele,  and  was  rewarded  finally  by 
having  the  moribund  Louis  XV  as  a  patient. 

This  was  the  man  with  whom  the  modern  history  of  the  in- 
ternal secretions  begins.    Not  content  with  adventures  among  the 


30       THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

courtiers  and  desperadoes  of  the  most  corrupt  court  in  the  most 
corrupt  city  of  the  world,  he  went  in  for  research.  The  high 
power  microscope  that  came  into  vogue  when  he  was  studying, 
revealed  vague  wonders  which  he  described  in  a  monograph,  "Re- 
searches into  the  mucous  tissues  or  cellular  organs."  But  what 
makes  him  interesting  is  a  slender  volume  on  the  "Medical  Analy- 
sis of  the  Blood,"  published  in  the  year  of  the  American  Declara- 
tion of  Independence.  The  sexual  side  of  men  and  women  aroused 
Bordeu's  most  ardent  enthusiasms.  Starting  with  observations 
on  the  characters  of  eunuchs  and  capons,  as  well  as  spayed  female 
animals,  he  formulated  a  conception  of  sexual  secretions  absorbed 
into  the  blood,  settling  the  male  or  female  tint  of  the  organism 
and  setting  the  seal  upon  the  destiny  of  the  individual.  Thus 
he  must  be  donated  the  credit  of  anticipating  the  most  modern 
doctrine  on  the  subject. 

The  generation  after  him  witnessed  the  triumph  of  the  cell  as 
the  recognized  unit  of  structure  of  the  tissues,  the  brick  of  the 
organs.  It  was  soon  found  that  the  cells  of  the  more  familiar 
glands,  like  the  sweat  or  tear  glands,  resembled  the  cells  of  the 
more  mysterious  structures  named  the  thyroid  in  the  neck,  or 
adrenal  in  the  abdomen,  of  which  the  function  was  unknown. 
What  had  hitherto  prevented  classification  of  the  latter  as  glands 
was  the  fact  that  they  possessed  no  visible  pathways  for  the 
removal  of  their  secretion.  So  now  they  were  set  apart  as  the 
ductless  glands,  the  glands  without  ducts,  as  contrasted  with  the 
glands  normally  equipped  with  ducts.  Since,  too,  they  were 
observed  to  have  an  exceedingly  rich  supply  of  blood,  the  blood 
presented  itself  as  the  only  conceivable  mode  of  egress  for  the 
secretions  packed  within  the  cells.  So  they  were  also  called  the 
blood  or  vascular  glands. 

The  names  which  became  most  popular  were  those  which 
represented  a  contrast  of  the  glands  with  the  ducts,  conveying 
their  secretion  to  the  exterior,  as  the  glands  of  external 
secretion  and  the  glands  without  the  ducts,  the  secretions 
of  which  were  kept  within  the  body,  absorbed  by  the  blood 
and  lymph  to  be  used  by  the  other  cells,  as  the  glands  of 
internal  secretion.  How  different  these  two  classes  of 
glands  are  may  be  realized  by  imagining  the  existence  of  great 
factories  manufacturing  food  products,  which  would  diffuse 
through  their  walls  into  the  atmosphere,  to  be  absorbed  by  our 
bodies. 

There  are  certain  terms  for  the  glands  of  internal  secretion 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  WERE  DISCOVERED  31 

which  are  used  interchangeably.  They  are  spoken  of  often  as 
the  endocrine  glands  and  as  the  hormone  producing  glands. 
Endocrine  is  most  convenient  for  it  stands  for  both  the  gland 
and  its  secretion.  Hormone  is  employed  a  good  deal  in  the  lit- 
erature of  the  subject.  But  it  applies  specifically  to  the  internal 
secretion,  and  not  to  the  gland. 

The  Experimental  Pioneer 

All  this  clarification  of  the  concept  of  the  glands  of  internal 
secretion  occurred  in  the  first  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
However,  no  inkling  of  their  real  importance  to  the  body,  of 
which  quantitatively  they  form  so  insignificant  a  part,  was  ap- 
parently revealed  to  anyone.  Not  even  the  most  daring  specula- 
tion or  brilliant  guess  work  in  physiology  engaged  them  as 
material.  Thus  Henle,  the  great  anatomist,  calmly  affirmed  that 
these  glands  "have  no  influence  on  animal  life:  they  may  be 
extirpated  or  they  degenerate  without  sensation  or  motion  suffer- 
ing in  the  least."  Johann  Miiller,  the  most  celebrated  physiologist 
of  his  day  and  contemporary  of  Henle,  wrote  in  1844  and  coolly 
stated,  "The  ductless  glands  are  alike  in  one  particular — they 
either  produce  a  different  change  in  the  blood  which  circulates 
through  them  or  the  lymph  which  they  elaborate  plays  a  special 
role  in  the  formation  of  blood  or  of  chyle."  In  other  words,  they 
were  dismissed  as  curious  nonentities,  of  no  real  significance  to 
the  running  of  the  body.  Laennec,  the  French  founder  of  the  Art 
of  Diagnosis  in  Medicine,  once  said  that  nothing  about  a  science 
is  more  interesting  than  the  progress  of  that  science  itself.  He 
might  have  added  that  nothing  either  was  more  interesting  than 
the  contradictions  in  that  progress.  For  while  these  grand  moguls 
of  their  sciences  were  enunciating  their  dogmas,  pioneers  here 
and  there  were  already  setting  the  mines  that  were  to  explode 
them. 

The  experimental  method,  to  the  value  of  which  biologists 
were  just  beginning  to  awaken,  was  destined  to  be  the  vehicle 
of  Time's  revenges.  An  application  of  it  to  the  mysteries  of  sex 
was  the  immediate  occasion.  Sex  and  sex  differences  have  always 
more  or  less  obsessed  the  imagination  of  mankind.  The  volumes 
of  theories  about  them  would  constitute  a  respectable  museum. 
Certain  gross  facts,  however,  were  known.  The  effects  of  loss 
of  the  sex  glands  upon  the  configuration  of  the  body  and  the 
predominating  constitution  in  animals  and  eunuchs  have  always 


32        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

attracted  attention.  The  proverbs  and  stories  of  all  nations  are 
full  of  references  to  them.  But  up  to  the  nineteenth  century  no 
controlled  experimental  work  was  ever  carried  out  regarding 
them.  It  was  in  1849,  that  A.  A.  Berthold  of  Gottingen,  a  quiet, 
sedate  lecturer,  carried  out  the  pioneer  experiment  of  removing 
the  testes  of  four  roosters  and  transplanting  them  under  the 
skin.  It  was  Berthold's  idea  to  test  whether  a  gland  with  a 
definite  external  secretion,  and  a  duct  through  which  that  secre- 
tion was  expelled,  but  which  yet  had  powers  over  the  body  as  a 
whole  that  were  to  be  attributed  only  to  an  internal  secretion, 
could  not  be  shown,  by  a  clean-cut  experiment,  to  possess  such 
an  internal  secretion.  He  succeeded  perfectly.  For  he  found 
that,  though,  in  thus  separating  the  gland  from  its  duct  and  so 
cutting  off  its  external  secretion,  the  action  of  the  cells  manufac- 
turing that  secretion  was  destroyed,  the  general  effects  upon  the 
body  were  not  those  of  castration.  The  animals  retained  their 
male  characteristics  as  regards  voice,  reproductive  instinct,  fight- 
ing spirit  and  growth  of  comb  and  wattles.  Whereas  if  the 
glands  were  entirely  removed,  these  male  traits,  peculiar  to  the 
rooster,  were  completely  lost.  The  inference  was  the  existence 
of  an  internal  secretion. 

To  Berthold  belongs  the  honor  of  being  the  first  experimental 
demonstrator  who  proved  the  reality  of  a  gland  with  a  true  in- 
ternal secretion  and  the  power  it  exercised  through  the  blood  upon 
the  entire  organism.  Besides,  he  showed  that  a  typical  gland  of 
external  secretion  could  also  have  an  internal  secretion,  a  possi- 
bility never  before  considered.  That  two  kinds  of  cells  could 
live  within  the  same  gland:  one  set  usually  recognized  as  pro- 
ducing the  external  secretion,  the  other  evolving  the  internal 
secretion,  was  an  astounding  original  conception. 

Enter  Claude  Bernard 

Science  is  supposed  to  be  immune  to  the  personal  prejudices 
and  emotional  habits  of  the  vulgar.  It  is  the  tradition  that  a 
new  contribution  to  knowledge  emerging  from  no  matter  how 
obscure  the  source,  should  be  hailed  as  a  gift  from  the  gods. 
But  the  sad  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  a  new  finding  in  science 
requires  as  much  backing  as  a  new  project  in  high  finance  or 
social  climbing.  Berthold,  like  Mendel,  the  founder  of  genetics, 
was  a  great  pioneer.  But  there  was  no  personage,  no  person  of 
consequence,  with  no  patronage  by  anyone  of  consequence,  no 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  WERE  DISCOVERED  33 

wife  or  kin,  to  push  him,  and  no  audience  to  stimulate  him.  His 
poor  four  little  pages  of  a  report,  published  ten  years  before 
Darwin's  "Origin  of  Species,"  attracted  not  the  slightest  notice. 
Buried  in  the  print  of  a  journal  with  a  subscription  list  of  pos- 
sibly two  or  three  hundred,  of  whom  perhaps  two  dozen  may  have 
been  interested  enough  to  read  it,  but  without  any  recorded 
reaction  on  the  part  of  any  of  them,  it  was  a  flash  in  the  pan. 
Though  it  was  good,  original,  conclusive  stuff,  it  was  cut  dead, 
absolutely,  by  the  scientific  world.  As  a  result,  forty  years 
elapsed  before  the  implications  of  his  studies  were  rediscovered 
by  the  Columbus  of  the  modern  approach  to  the  internal  secre- 
tions, the  American  Frenchman,  Brown-Sequard. 

It  took  a  first  class  man  of  genius  in  his  field,  in  Paris,  with  a 
respected  position  in  the  whirl  of  its  medical  planetary  system 
and  a  university  appointment,  to  boom  and  advertise  the  doc- 
trine of  the  internal  secretions,  so  that  people  began  to  sit  up 
and  listen  and  take  sides — on  the  wrong  grounds.  This  French- 
man was  Claude  Bernard.  At  a  series  of  lectures  on  experi- 
mental physiology  delivered  at  the  College  of  France,  in  1855, 
he  coined  the  terms  internal  secretion  and  external  secretion  and 
emphasized  the  opposition  between  them,  on  the  basis  of  an  in- 
correct example,  the  function  of  the  liver  in  the  supply  of  sugar 
to  the  blood. 

Just  as  Columbus  reached  America,  carried  on  a  series  of 
logical  syllogisms,  built  upon  unreal  pictures  of  a  straight  path 
to  the  East,  Claude  Bernard  opened  up  the  continent  of  the 
internal  secretions  to  the  experimental  enthusiasts  of  his  time 
by  a  discovery  which  today  is  not  grouped  among  the  phenomena 
of  internal  secretion  at  all.  In  attempting  to  throw  light  upon 
the  disease  diabetes,  in  which  there  is  a  loss  of  the  normal  ability 
of  the  cells  to  burn  up  sugar,  he  examined  the  sugar  content  of 
the  blood  in  different  regions  of  the  body.  He  found  that  the 
blood  of  the  veins,  in  general,  contained  less  sugar  than  the 
blood  of  the  arteries,  which  meant  that  sugar  was  taken  from 
the  blood  in  passing  through  the  tissues.  But  the  venous  blood 
of  the  right  side  of  the  heart  contained  as  much  sugar  as  the 
arterial  blood.  Evidently,  somewhere,  sugar  was  added  to  the 
blood  in  the  veins  before  it  got  to  the  heart.  The  blood  of 
the  vein  which  goes  from  the  liver  to  the  right  side  of  the  heart 
was  then  found  to  contain  a  higher  percentage  of  sugar  than  is 
present  in  the  arteries.  The  vein  which  transmits  the  blood  from 
the  intestines  to  the  liver  had  the  usual  lower  percentage  of 


34        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

sugar  corresponding  to  the  analysis  established  for  the  other 
veins.  The  liver,  therefore,  must  add  sugar  to  the  blood  on  its 
way  to  the  heart.  Extraction  of  the  liver  then  revealed  the 
presence  in  it  of  a  form  of  starch,  an  animal  starch,  which  Ber- 
nard called  glycogen,  the  sugar-maker.  The  origin  of  the  sugar 
added  to  the  blood  on  its  way  from  the  liver  to  the  heart  was 
thus  settled.  Bernard  went  on  to  hail  glycogen  and  the  sugar 
derivable  as  the  internal  secretions  of  the  liver,  and  to  erect,  and 
then  drive  home,  a  theory  of  internal  secretions  and  their  impor- 
tance in  the  body  economy. 

The  case  he  had  hit  upon  was  exquisitely  fortunate,  as  the 
liver  had  hitherto  been  regarded  purely  a  gland  of  external 
secretion,  the  bile.  Nowadays,  glycogen  and  the  blood  sugar  are 
not  considered  internal  secretions,  because  they  are  classified  as 
elementary  reserve  food,  while  the  concept  of  the  internal  secre- 
tions has  become  narrowed  down  to  substances  acting  as  starters 
or  inhibitors  of  different  processes.  Moreover,  the  process  of 
liberation  of  sugar  from  glycogen  itself  in  the  liver,  upon  demand, 
is  today  set  down  to  the  action  of  an  internal  secretion,  adrenalin. 
Claude  Bernard's  conception,  like  a  novelist's  characters,  has 
turned  upon  its  creator,  taken  on  a  life  of  its  own,  and  evolved 
into  something  he  never  intended.  He  looked  upon  an  internal 
secretion  as  simply  maintaining  the  normal  composition  of  the 
blood,  which  bathed  alike  and  treated  alike  the  democracy  of 
cells.  Today,  the  blood  is  believed  merely  the  transporting 
medium  for  the  internal  secretion,  destined  for  a  particular  group 
of  cells. 

Addison's  as  the  First  English  Contribution 

The  years  1855-56  are  red-letter  years  in  the  history  of  the 
glands  of  internal  secretion.  They  witnessed,  not  only  the  pub- 
lication of  Claude  Bernard's  "Lectures  on  Experimental  Physi- 
ology," but  also  the  appearance  of  a  monograph  by  Thomas 
Addison,  an  English  physician,  entitled  "On  the  constitutional 
and  local  effects  of  disease  of  the  suprarenal  bodies."  In  this, 
he  described  a  fatal  disease  during  which  the  individual  affected 
became  languid  and  weak,  and  developed  a  dingy  or  smoky 
discoloration  of  the  whole  surface  of  the  body,  a  browning  or 
bronzing  of  the  skin,  caused  generally  by  destructive  tubercu- 
lous disease  of  the  suprarenal  or  adrenal  bodies.  Addison 
promptly  put  down  these  constitutional  effects  of  loss  of  the 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  WERE  DISCOVERED  35 

adrenal  bodies  to  loss  of  something  produced  by  them  of  con- 
stitutional importance.  He  was  particularly  struck  by  the 
change  in  the  pigmentation  of  the  skin,  so  much  so  that  his  own 
designation  for  the  affection  was  "bronzed  skin."  Since  then, 
however,  the  condition  has  been  universally  styled  Addison's 
Disease. 

There  is  something  spectacularly  mysterious  and  picturesque 
about  most  of  the  malign,  insidious  effects  of  the  disease  which 
appealed  at  once  to  a  number  of  investigators.  The  most  adven- 
turous, the  most  daring,  the  most  imbued  with  enthusiasm  for 
the  experimental  method,  was  the  American  Frenchman,  Brown- 
Sequard,  who  is  acknowledged  the  father  of  modern  knowledge 
of  the  glands  of  internal  secretion,  though  to  Claude  Bernard 
belong  the  honors  of  the  grandfather. 

Brown-Sequard  the  Great 

Brown-Sequard,  as  the  outstanding  figure  in  the  history  of  the 
glands  of  internal  secretion,  deserves  some  notice  as  a  person- 
ality. In  the  words  of  the  note-makers  for  novels  and  plays, 
he  was  a  card.  He  was  born  in  1817  at  Port-Louis,  on  the  island 
of  Mauritius,  off  Africa,  then  French  property.  His  father  was 
a  Mr.  Brown,  an  American  sea  captain;  his  mother  a  Mme. 
Sequard,  a  Frenchwoman.  Early  in  childhood,  the  father  sailed 
away  on  one  of  his  voyages  and  never  came  back.  The  mother 
thereafter  supported  herself  and  her  son  sewing  embroideries. 
At  fifteen,  Brown-Sequard,  with  the  physical  appearance  of  an 
Indian  Creole,  was  clerking  in  a  colonial  store  by  day,  and  com- 
posing poetry,  romances  and  plays  by  night.  The  call  of  Paris 
was  in  his  blood,  which  was  indeed  a  supersaturated  solution  of 
wanderlust. 

Soon  he  was  landed  there  to  make  his  fortune  in  literature, 
only  too  speedily  to  be  disillusioned.  Exhibition  of  manuscripts 
to  a  leading  literary  light  merely  evoked  curt  advice  to  learn  a 
trade  or  go  into  business.  He  would  have  none  of  either  and 
studied  medicine  instead,  earning  his  way  by  teaching  as  he 
learned.  In  the  laboratories,  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  people 
who  more  than  once  were  to  be  his  salvation  in  the  ups  and  downs 
of  his  career.  In  1848  he  was  one  of  the  secretaries  of  the  Society 
of  Biology,  newly  founded  by  Claude  Bernard. 

Some  trouble,  perhaps  some  effect  upon  his  health  of  cholera 
which  then  swept  Paris,  caused  him  to  return  to  his  native 


36        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

Mauritius,  to  encounter  an  epidemic  of  cholera.  There  he  slaved 
manfully,  for  which  a  gold  medal  was  afterward  struck  for  him. 
That  over  with,  he  embarked  in  1852  for  New  York,  without  a 
word  of  American,  learning  English  on  board.  This  was  the  first 
of  a  series  of  voyages.  As  he  often  boasted,  he  crossed  the  ocean 
sixty  times,  not  a  bad  record  for  the  days  when  the  Mauretania 
was  still  in  the  womb  of  time.  He  made  a  hopeless  failure  out 
of  practice  in  New  York,  became  so  poor  as  to  practice  obstet- 
rics at  five  dollars  a  case,  and  married  a  niece  of  Daniel  Webster. 
Then  he  went  back  to  Paris.  Back  to  America  next  as  Professor 
of  Physiology  at  the  University  of  Richmond,  Virginia,  a  job 
occupied  for  a  few  months  only  because  of  his  opinions  on 
slavery,  ostensibly  anyhow. 

To  Paris  then  the  rolling  stone  meandered  again.  So  that 
soon  after  he  was  offered  and  accepted  the  charge  of  a  great 
newly  opened  hospital  for  epileptics  in  London.  That  proved 
merely  an  interlude  and  in  1863  we  find  him  back  in  his  father- 
land (if  we  may  hold  France  his  motherland)  as  Professor  of 
Neuropathology  at  Harvard.  In  New  York  fame  preceded  him 
now  with  a  thousand  trumpets,  so  that  on  the  day  of  his  arrival, 
he  was  kept  busy  seeing  patients  until  night,  when  he  had  to 
desist  because  of  exhaustion.  But  still  he  did  not  prosper.  An 
unfortunate  second  marriage  almost  broke  his  heart,  and  an  at- 
tempt to  found  in  New  York  a  new  medical  periodical,  the 
Archives  of  Scientific  and  Practical  Medicine  and  Surgery,  got 
him  into  hot  water.  Not  until  the  death  of  Claude  Bernard  in 
1878  left  vacant  the  chair  of  physiology  in  the  College  of  France, 
did  he  find  peace  and  rest.  He  hastened  to  Paris,  was  appointed, 
and  lived,  in  spite  of  the  most  erratic  of  existences,  to  the  ripe  old 
age  of  78,  working  up  to  the  last  minute. 

Addison's  monograph  stimulated  Brown-Sequard,  in  the  year 
after  its  printing,  to  reproduce  the  fatal  disease  experimentally 
by  excising  the  suprarenal  capsules  in  animals.  Addison  was 
very  modest  in  his  monograph.  He  stated  that  the  first  case  of 
the  malady  had  been  reported  by  his  great  predecessor  at  Guy's 
Hospital,  London,  Richard  Bright,  the  describer  of  Bright's 
Disease.  Then  he  talks  about  the  "curious  facts"  he  had 
"stumbled  upon"  and  refers  to  an  "ill-defined  impression"  that 
these  suprarenal  bodies,  in  common  with  the  spleen  and  other 
organs,  "in  some  way  or  other  minister  to  the  elaboration  of  the 
blood."    In  the  preface  to  his  work  he  had  spoken  more  confi- 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  WERE  DISCOVERED  37 

dently  of  the  fact  that  Nature,  as  an  experimenter  and  a  vivi- 
sector,  can  beat  the  physiologist  to  a  frazzle.  Indeed,  he  begins 
like  this:  "If  Pathology  be  to  disease  what  Physiology  is  to 
health,  it  appears  reasonable  to  conclude  that,  in  any  given  struc- 
ture or  organ,  the  laws  of  the  former  will  be  as  fixed  and  sig- 
nificant as  those  of  the  latter:  and  that  the  peculiar  characters 
of  any  structure  or  organ  may  be  as  certainly  recognized  in  the 
phenomena  of  disease  as  in  the  phenomena  of  health.  Although 
pathology,  therefore,  as  a  branch  of  medical  science,  is  neces- 
sarily founded  on  physiology,  questions  may  nevertheless  arise 
regarding  the  true  character  of  a  structure  or  organ,  to  which 
occasionally  the  pathologist  may  be  able  to  return  a  more 
satisfactory  and  decisive  reply  than  the  physiologist — these  two 
branches  of  medical  knowledge  being  thus  found  mutually  to 
advance  and  illustrate  each  other.  Indeed,  as  regards  the  func- 
tions of  individual  organs,  the  mutual  aids  of  these  two  branches 
of  knowledge  are  probably  much  more  nearly  balanced  than 
many  may  be  disposed  to  admit:  for  in  estimating  them  we 
are  very  apt  to  forget  how  large  an  amount  of  our  present  physi- 
ological knowledge  respecting  the  functions  of  these  organs  has 
been  the  immediate  result  of  casual  observations  made  on  the 
effects  of  disease."  William  James  expressed  the  same  thought 
some  decades  later,  when  he  emphasized  that  the  abnormal  was 
but  the  normal  exaggerated  and  magnified,  played  upon  by  the 
limelight,  and  therefore  the  best  teacher  and  indicator  of  the 
exact  definition  and  limitations  of  the  normal. 

Addison,  speaking  before  the  South  London  Medical  Society 
in  1849,  declared  that  in  all  of  three  afflicted  individuals  there 
was  found  a  diseased  condition  of  the  suprarenal  capsules,  and 
that  in  spite  of  the  consciousness  "of  the  bias  and  prejudice  in- 
separable from  the  hope  or  vanity  of  an  original  discovery  .  .  . 
he  could  not  help  entertaining  a  very  strong  impression  that 
these  hitherto  mysterious  organs — the  suprarenal  capsules — may 
be  either  directly  or  indirectly  concerned  in  sanguification  (the 
making  of  the  blood) :  and  that  a  diseased  condition  of  them, 
functional  or  structural,  may  interfere  with  the  proper  elabora- 
tion of  the  body  generally,  or  of  the  red  particles  more 
especially.  ..."  A  modern,  acquainted  with  after  developments, 
would  say  that  Addison  was  very  hot  upon  the  trail  indeed.  But 
withal,  though  he  must  have  been  well  aware  of  John  Hunter's 
advice  to  Jenner  on  vaccination,  "Don't  think,  make  some  ob- 


38        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

servations,"  his  training  in  the  indirect  reasoning  and  deductions 
of  the  clinician  prevented  him  from  going  right  on  to  a  direct 
experimental  test  of  his  theories. 

This  Brown-Sequard  proceeded  to  do.  Removing  the  adrenal 
glands  in  several  species  of  animals,  he  found,  meant  a  terrible 
weakness  in  twenty-four  to  forty-eight  hours,  and  death  shortly 
after.  If  only  one  were  removed,  there  was  no  change  apparent 
in  the  normal  animal,  but  death  occurred  rapidly  upon  removal 
of  the  other,  even  after  a  long  interval.  Furthermore,  trans- 
fusion of  blood  from  a  normal  into  one  deprived  of  its  supra- 
renals  prevented  death  for  a  long  time,  indicating  that  the 
suprarenals  normally  secreted  something  into  the  blood  neces- 
sary to  life. 

The  years  1855-1856  beheld  two  other  important  glands  of 
internal  secretion,  the  thyroid,  the  gland  in  the  neck  astride  the 
windpipe,  and  the  thymus,  in  the  chest  above  the  heart,  make 
their  debut. 

The  thymus  was  introduced  by  the  great  classic  monograph 
of  Friedleben  on  the  "Physiology  of  the  Thymus,"  in  which  he 
mentioned  the  usual  forgotten  pioneers:  Felix  Plater,  a  Swiss 
physician,  who  in  1614  had  found  an  enlarged  thymus  in  an 
infant  dying  suddenly,  and  Restelli,  an  Italian,  who  interested 
himself  in  the  effects  of  removal  of  the  thymus  more  than  ten 
years  before.  Friedleben  believed  that  in  the  young  without 
a  thymus,  there  occurred  a  softening  of  the  bones,  and  general 
physical  and  mental  deterioration.  He  started  the  ball  rolling 
for  a  number  of  researches. 

Moritz  Schiff,  of  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  showed  that  excision 
of  the  thyroid  gland  in  dogs  is  invariably  fatal.  A  number  of 
physicians  in  the  first  half  of  the  century  had  reported  certain 
remarkable  symptoms  associated  with  enlargement  of  the  thyroid 
gland,  as  goitre.  In  1825  the  collected  posthumous  writings  of 
Caleb  Perry,  an  eminent  physician  of  Bath,  England,  recorded 
eight  cases,  in  which,  together  with  enlargement  of  the  gland, 
there  developed  enlargement  and  palpitation  of  the  heart,  a  dis- 
tinct protrusion  of  the  eyes  from  their  sockets  and  an  appearance 
of  agitation  and  distress.  Schiff's  paper  was  the  first  to  throw 
any  light  on  the  subject.  But  for  some  reason,  probably  the 
same  as  in  Berthold's  forlorn  experiments  with  the  sex  glands, 
the  work  of  a  person  of  no  importance  was  ignored,  or  perhaps 
the  more  charitable  view  is  that  it  was  forgotten.  Yet  the  tide 
of  observation  kept  sweeping  in  relevant  data. 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  WERE  DISCOVERED  39 

In  1850,  Curling,  an  English  pathologist,  studying  the  cretinous 
idiots  of  Salzburg,  written  about  centuries  before  by  Paracelsus, 
discovered  that  with  their  defective  brain  and  mentality  there 
was  associated  an  absence  of  the  thyroid  body,  and  accompanying 
symmetrical  swellings  of  fat  tissue  at  the  sides  of  the  neck. 
Then  Sir  William  Gull  in  1873  painted  the  singular  details  of  a 
cretinous  condition  developing  in  adult  women,  a  condition  to 
which  another  Englishman,  William  Ord,  of  London,  five  years 
later  donated  the  title  of  myxedema,  because  of  a  characteristic 
thickening  and  infiltration  of  the  skin  that  is  one  of  its  features. 

Surgery  then  enters  upon  the  scene.  The  great  Swiss  surgeon, 
Theodore  Kocher,  performed  the  first  excision  of  the  thyroid 
gland  in  human  beings  for  goitre,  in  the  same  year.  In  1882, 
J.  L.  Reverdin,  another  surgeon  of  Geneva,  noticed  that  in  man 
complete  removal  of  the  thyroid  was  followed  by  symptoms 
identical  with  those  collected  under  the  name  of  myxedema,  and 
used  the  phrase  "operative  myxedema"  to  emphasize  his  convic- 
tion of  the  connection  between  them.  Then  Schiff,  in  1884, 
neglected  twenty-five  years,  came  back,  with  an  array  of  dem- 
onstrations, proving  that  the  various  symptoms,  tremors,  spasms 
and  convulsions,  following  removal  of  the  thyroid,  could  be  pre- 
vented by  a  previous  graft  of  a  piece  of  the  gland  under  the  skin, 
or  by  the  injection  of  thyroid  juice  into  a  vein  or  under  the  skin, 
or  by  the  ingestion  of  thyroid  juice  or  the  raw  thyroid  by  mouth. 

A  crystallization  of  ideas  about  the  true  function  of  the  thyroid 
was  now  inevitable.  In  1884,  Sir  Victor  Horsley  produced  an 
experimental  myxedema  by  removal  of  the  thyroid  in  monkeys, 
resembling  closely  in  its  symptom-picture  the  disease  as  it 
occurs  in  human  beings.  Mobius,  a  German  neurologist,  came 
out  boldly  for  the  conception  that  a  number  of  ailments  could 
be  due  to  qualitative  and  quantitative  changes  in  the  secretion  of 
the  thyroid,  and  that  just  as  myxedema  and  cretinism  were  due 
to  an  insufficiency  of  the  secretion,  Parry's  disease  was  to  be 
ascribed  to  an  excessive  outpouring  of  it.  The  next  steps  were 
easy.  In  1888,  Sir  Felix  Semon,  as  an  outcome  of  a  collective 
investigation,  established  for  all  time  that  cretinism,  myxedema 
and  post-operative  myxedema  were  one  and  the  same. 

It  was  bound  to  occur  to  someone  that  if  human  myxedema 
and  animal  experimental  myxedema  were  one  and  the  same. 
Schiff' s  procedure  of  prevention  and  cure  by  feeding  thyroid  gland 
by  mouth  in  the  latter  could  be  applied  to  the  former.  The  idea 
occurred  to  two  men,  Murray  and  Howitz,  in  1891.    Murray's 


40        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

patient,  a  Mrs.  H.,  was  shown  before  the  Northcumberland  and 
Durham  Medical  Society,  an  English  country  medical  organiza- 
tion, in  February,  1891.  She  was  forty-two  years  old  and  had 
borne  nine  children.  The  illness  attacking  her  had  begun  in- 
sidiously, with  a  gradual  enlargement  and  thickening  of  her  face 
and  hands.  She  had  become  very  slow  in  speech  and  gait,  sensi- 
tive to  cold,  and  languid  and  depressed  in  spirit  to  the  point  of 
inability  to  go  about  alone.  Murray,  employing  the  glycerin 
extract  of  the  thyroid  gland  of  a  freshly  killed  sheep,  injected 
twenty-four  drops  hypodermically,  twice  a  week.  There  was 
an  immediate  and  marvelous  improvement,  which  continued 
steadily,  Murray  finding  that  it  could  be  maintained  by  feeding 
the  gland  by  mouth.  The  features  and  skin  returned  to  the 
normal,  speech  quickened  and  she  became  able  to  walk  about 
and  live  her  life  without  hesitation  or  assistance.  She  lived  to 
the  age  of  seventy-four,  dying  in  1919.  In  the  twenty-eight 
years,  during  which  it  was  always  necessary  to  administer  the 
thyroid,  she  consumed  over  nine  pints  of  thyroid,  comprising  the 
glands  of  870  sheep. 

Giants  and  dwarfs  and  fat  people  have  always  interested  people- 
as  freaks,  departures  from  the  usual  and  the  normal,  and  have 
formed  the  stock  of  popular  museum,  circus  and  country  fair. 
Every  mythology  has  concerned  itself  with  them.  The  Titans 
among  the  Greeks,  Og,  Gog  and  Magog  among  the  Hebrews,  are 
examples  of  the  fascination  of  the  superlarge.  John  Hunter,  the 
founder  of  experimental  surgery,  spent  a  fortune  in  chasing  after 
the  skeleton  of  a  famous  Irish  Giant  in  1783.  Dwarfs  have  also 
fascinated — witness  the  short-limbed  satyrs  of  the  Greeks  and 
the  dwarf  gods  (Ptah  and  Bes)  of  Egypt,  as  well  as  the  vogue 
of  the  court  dwarf-buffoons,  of  whom  Velasquez  has  left  us 
some  portraits.  Fat  people,  obesity  as  a  manifestation  of  per- 
sonality, have  aroused  wonder  and  amusement  the  world  over. 
The  Fat  Boy  has  always  furnished  good  sport  to  the  Sam 
Wellers. 

All  these  characters,  tall  or  short,  fat  or  lean,  are  related  to 
the  activity  of  a  gland  of  internal  secretion  in  the  head,  the 
pituitary,  which  became  a  centre  of  interest  in  the  late  eighties. 
Because  of  its  situation,  the  opinion  of  the  ancients  was  that  it 
was  the  source  of  the  mucus  of  the  nose,  an  opinion  reinforced  by 
the  greatest  anatomist  of  the  Dark  Ages,  Galen,  and  held  up  to 
the  seventeenth  century.  In  other  words,  it  was  considered  sim- 
ply a  gland  of  external  secretion.    Experimental  removal  of  the 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  WERE  DISCOVERED  41 

pituitary  was  essayed  by  Horsley  in  1886,  the  same  man  who 
two  years  before  had  reproduced  myxedema  successfully  in 
monkeys.  Others  succeeded  his  attempt.  But  the  conclusions 
drawn  were  uncertain  or  contradictory,  resulting  from  the 
difficulties  of  the  operative  technique  of  getting  at  a  gland  placed 
at  the  base  of  the  brain.  Not  until  1908  was  the  problem  solved 
by  Paulesco  of  Bucharest,  who  devised  a  way  of  reaching  it  by 
trepanning  the  skull.  He  was  thus  able  to  prove  beyond  a  doubt 
that  the  pituitary  gland  was  essential  to  life,  and  that  without 
it  no  animal  could  continue  to  live  for  any  length  of  time.  Soon 
after,  Harvey  Cushing  and  his  associates  at  Johns  Hopkins  Hos- 
pital discovered  that  removal  of  part  of  the  gland  was  followed 
by  a  pronounced  obesity  and  sluggishness.  A  basis  for  the  under- 
standing of  obesity  and  growth  was  then  established. 

In  the  eighties,  there  came  to  the  clinic  of  Pierre  Marie  in 
Paris,  a  pupil  of  the  great  Charcot,  various  women  complaining 
of  headache.  They  also  told  him  about  an  enlargement  of  their 
hands  and  feet,  and  an  alarming  change  in  the  bones  of  the  face. 
He  differentiated  the  affection  from  its  imitators,  and  created  its 
present  designation  of  "acromegaly"  (enlargement  of  the  extremi- 
ties). Also  he  correlated  their  relationship  to  the  giants  who 
have  been  mentioned.  Acromegalics  have  been  also  likened  to 
the  Neanderthal  Man,  who  had  probably,  as  the  gorillas  may 
have,  an  excess  of  the  pituitary  in  their  systems.  For  four  years 
he  studied  the  morbid  phenomena  in  the  tissues  of  these  sufferers 
at  last  consigned  to  their  end.  First  one,  and  then  another,  and 
then  a  third  and  a  fourth  exhibited  a  striking  hypertrophy  of 
the  pituitary  body  and  a  consequent  widening  of  the  portion  of 
the  base  of  the  skull  which  cradles  the  gland.  He  proceeded  to 
say  so  in  the  graduating  thesis  of  his  pupil,  Souza  Leite.  The 
inference  was  inevitable  that  the  entire  process  was  to  be  put 
down  to  an  overactivity  of  the  pituitary.  Ever  since,  too,  the 
growth  of  the  skeleton  has  been  accepted  as  controlled  by  that 
gland. 

About  this  time  another  set  of  old  observations  came  to  life 
again,  related  to  those  of  Docent  Berthold  on  the  auto-grafting  of 
the  testes  of  a  cock,  with  complete  retention  of  its  sexual  char- 
acters, which  he  said,  must  be  due  "to  the  productive  action  of 
the  testes,  i.  e.,  to  its  effect  upon  the  blood,  and  thence  to  the 
corresponding  effect  of  such  blood  upon  the  entire  organism." 
Of  course,  stock  raisers  and  poultry  fanciers  have  noted  the  inter- 
esting outcome  of  castration  for  about  as  long  as  their  professions 


42        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

have  existed.  And  for  ages  the  diminution  of  sexual  activity  as 
a  predecessor  to  the  decadence  of  senility  has  been  harped  upon. 
Rejuvenation,  especially  in  connection  with  sexual  activity,  as 
well  as  with  tissue  and  spiritual  elasticity,  has  been  one  of  the 
haunting  phantoms  of  the  imagination  for  as  long  as  we  have 
records  of  articulate  humanity.  Together  with  El  Dorado,  the 
Elixir  of  Youth  has  shared  the  honors  with  the  Philosopher's 
Stone.  The  idea  of  employing  the  chemical  materials  of  the  sex 
glands,  the  testes  or  the  ovaries,  to  bring  back  youth,  to  restore 
juvenility,  had  not,  as  far  as  we  know,  occurred  to  anyone  who 
at  any  rate  put  himself  on  record,  by  word  or  deed,  until  1889. 
The  hero  of  the  new  departure  was  the  hero  of  so  many  daring 
adventures  among  speculative  experiments,  Brown-Sequard. 

At  this  time  the  wanderer  was  an  aged  sage,  seventy-two  years 
old,  fit,  as  custom  goes,  only  for  retirement  and  resignation  to 
the  fate  of  all  flesh.  The  old  passion  of  experimenting  upon  him- 
self as  well  as  upon  the  guinea-pigs,  dogs,  cats  and  monkeys,  by 
which  he  was  always  surrounded,  was  as  alive  and  kicking  as 
ever.  I  suppose  he  had  been  thinking  for  years  concerning  some 
method  for  the  resumption  of  youth,  for  we  find  him  exclaiming, 
when  the  opportunity  loomed  of  a  great  laboratory  on  Agassiz 
Island,  Long  Island,  on  one  of  his  recurrent  nights  to  New  York: 
"Would  that  I  were  thirty!"  And  other  passages  in  his  personal 
communications  refer  again  and  again  to  his  consciousness  of 
growing  old.  The  miracles  that  were  being  performed  by  inject- 
ing thyroid  and  feeding  thyroid  in  animals  probably  acted  as 
the  spark  to  an  inflammable  mass  of  ideas  long  smouldering  in 
the  subcellars  of  his  mind.  The  effects  were  reported  to  the 
Society  of  Biology  in  Paris,  one  memorable  evening,  June  1,  1889, 
in  two  notes  on  the  results  of  the  hypodermic  injection  in  man 
of  the  testis  juice  of  monkeys  and  dogs,  and  certain  generaliza- 
tions deduced  therefrom.  Such  juices,  he  stated,  had  a  definite 
energy-mobilizing  or,  as  he  put  it,  dynamogenic  action  upon 
the  subject  himself,  stimulating  amazingly  his  general  health, 
muscular  power  and  mental  activity. 

These  experiments,  their  nature,  the  manner  in  which  they 
were  conducted,  the  character  and  age  of  the  experimenter,  and 
the  results  claimed,  were  exquisitely  good  stuff  for  ridicule.  Car- 
toonists and  reporters  leaped  upon  the  theme  with  the  avidity  of 
the  true-blue  interviewer.  Paris,  where  to  be  ridiculed  is  to  be 
killed  in  public  with  the  most  ignominious  of  deaths,  reacted  as 
only  the  French  temperament  can  react.    The  wits  of  the  salons 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  WERE  DISCOVERED  43 

crackled,  the  bourgeoisie  chortled,  the  proletariat  roared.  The 
Elixir  of  Life  had  been  discovered  and  it  was  excellent  sport. 

But  Brown-Sequard  remained  unshaken.  He  had  all  the 
roues  of  Paris  running  to  him,  and  consequent  charges  of 
quackery  and  charlatanism.  How  much  of  these  unsavory  epi- 
thets really  applied  to  him  will  not  be  determined  until  we  have 
a  better  acquaintance  with  his  more  intimate  life.  A  biography 
and  collection  of  his  letters  is  needed.  But  it  is  certain  that  the 
general  principles  he  arrived  at,  aided  as  much  by  the  wings  of 
intuition  as  by  the  clues  of  incomplete  and  incompletely  con- 
trolled experiments,  survive  as  the  foundations  of  whatever  we 
know  about  the  internal  secretions,  and  all  our  present  viewpoints. 
He  summed  these  up  in  1891  as  follows: 

"All  the  tissues,  in  our  view,  are  modifiers  of  the  blood  by 
means  of  an  internal  secretion  taken  from  them  by  the  venous 
blood.  From  this  we  are  forced  to  the  conclusion  that,  if  sub- 
cutaneous injections  of  the  liquids  drawn  from  these  parts  are 
ineffectual,  then  we  should  inject  some  of  the  venous  blood  sup- 
plying these  parts.  .  .  .  We  admit  that  each  tissue,  and,  more 
generally,  each  cell  of  the  organism,  secretes  on  its  own  account, 
certain  products  or  special  ferments,  which,  through  this  medium 
(the  blood),  influence  all  other  cells  of  the  body,  a  definite 
solidarity  being  thus  established  among  all  the  cells  through  a 
mechanism  other  than  the  nervous  system.  .  .  .  All  the  tissues 
(glands  and  other  organs)  have  thus  a  special  internal  secretion, 
and  so  give  to  the  blood  something  more  than  the  waste  products 
of  metabolism.  The  internal  secretions,  whether  by  direct  favor- 
able influence,  or  whether  through  the  obstacles  they  oppose  to 
deleterious  processes,  seem  to  be  of  great  utility  in  maintaining 
the  organism  in  its  normal  state." 

The  only  part  of  this  statement  not  conceded  today  is  that 
relating  to  the  formation  of  internal  secretions  by  tissues  other 
than  those  of  which  the  cells  are  definitely  glandular,  that  is 
secretory:  as  can  be  determined  under  the  microscope.  Brown- 
Sequard  added  to  the  concept  of  internal  secretions,  fathered  by 
Claude  Bernard,  the  idea  of  a  correlation,  a  mutual  influencing 
of  them  and  of  the  different  organs  of  the  body  through  them. 
The  nervous  system  had  hitherto  been  regarded  as  the  sole  means 
of  communication  between  cells,  by  its  telegraphic  arrangements 
of  nerve  filaments  reaching  out  everywhere,  interweaving  with 
each  other  and  the  cells.  The  Brown-Sequard  conception  in- 
ferred the  existence  of  a  postal  system  between  cells,  the  blood 


44       THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

supplying  the  highway  for  travel  and  transmission  of  the  post, 
the  post  consisting  of  the  chemical  substances  secreted  by  the 
glands.  To  be  sure,  the  doctrine  was  only  an  inference,  though 
well-founded,  of  which  the  direct  experimental  proof  was  not  to 
be  obtained  until  the  researches  of  Bayliss  and  Starling.  Yet  to 
Brown-Sequard  belongs  the  immortal  credit,  if  not  of  the  origina- 
tor, at  any  rate  of  the  resurrector  of  the  idea  of  using  gland 
extracts  to  influence  the  body.  The  unwarranted  hopes  aroused 
by  his  enthusiastic  reports  of  rejuvenating  miracles  have  long 
since  been  dissipated.  Moreover,  they  smeared  the  whole  subject 
with  a  disrepute  which  clings  to  certain  narrow  and  unreasonable 
minds  to  this  day.  But  as  every  physiologist  since  has  acknowl- 
edged, he  was  and  remains  the  great  path-breaker  in  the  conquest 
of  the  internal  secretions. 

The  Hormones 

The  problem  of  the  internal  secretions  was  now  attacked  from 
another  angle.  A  great  Russian  physiologist,  Pawlow,  called 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  introduction  of  a  dilute  mineral 
acid,  such  as  the  hydrochloric  acid,  normally  a  constituent  of 
the  stomach  digestive  fluid,  into  the  upper  part  of  the  intestine, 
provoked  a  secretion  of  the  pancreas,  which  is  so  important  for 
intestinal  digestion.  He  explained  the  phenomenon  as  a  reflex, 
a  matter  of  the  nerves  going  from  the  intestine  to  the  pancreas. 

His  pupil,  Popielski,  threw  doubt  upon  so  easy  an  explanation, 
by  proving  that  the  same  reaction  could  be  elicited  even  after  all 
the  nerve  connections  between  the  gut  and  the  spinal  cord  were 
severed.  If  the  relation  was  a  reflex,  it  would  have  to  be  classed 
now  as  one  of  those  local  nerve  circuits,  which  are  pretty  common 
among  the  viscera,  a  local  call  and  reply  as  it  were,  without 
mediation  of  the  great  long  distance  trunk  lines  in  the  spinal 
cord  and  the  medulla  oblongata. 

The  work  of  Bayliss  and  Starling,  two  English  physiologists, 
was  commenced  then  to  test  the  hypothesis.  They  soon  found 
that  the  experiment  could  be  so  devised  as  to  exclude  any  influ- 
ence whatever  on  the  part  of  the  nervous  tissues,  and  yet  result 
positively.  Thus,  if  a  loop  of  intestine  was  so  prepared  as  to  be 
attached  to  the  rest  of  the  body  only  by  means  of  its  blood  ves- 
sels, all  the  nerves  being  cut,  putting  some  acid  into  it  was  still 
followed  by  a  flow  of  pancreatic  juice,  no  less  marked  than  when 
none  of  the  parts  about  the  piece  of  gut  had  been  disturbed.    It 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  WERE  DISCOVERED  45 

was  evident  that  the  stimulus  to  the  pancreas  was  carried  by 
way  of  the  blood  stream.  That  the  stimulating  substance  was 
not  the  acid  itself,  was  shown  by  the  failure  of  the  reaction  to 
occur  when  the  acid  was  injected  directly  into  the  blood  stream. 
Since  there  was  this  difference  in  the  effects  between  acid  in  the 
intestine  and  acid  in  the  blood,  it  was  manifest  that  the  active 
substance  must  be  some  material  elaborated  in  the  intestinal 
mucous  membrane  under  the  influence  of  the  acid.  So  they 
scraped  some  of  the  lining  of  the  bowel,  rubbed  it  up  with  acid, 
and  injected  the  filtered  mixture  into  the  blood.  They  were  re- 
warded by  a  flow  of  pancreatic  juice  greater  in  amount  than  any 
obtained  in  their  other  experiments.  From  the  filtered  mixture 
they  isolated  in  an  impure  form,  a  solid  substance  which,  when 
introduced  into  the  circulation,  has  a  similar  action.  To  this,  of 
which  the  exact  chemical  make-up  is  as  yet  an  unknown,  they 
gave  the  name  secretin. 

Secretin  and  its  properties  they  used  to  generalize  as  a  per- 
fectly direct  and  amply  demonstrable  example  of  an  internal 
secretion.  Metaphors  are  no  less  valuable  in  physiology  than  in 
poetry.  They  declared  that  the  internal  secretions  appeared  to 
them  to  be  chemical  messengers,  telegraph  boys  sent  from  one 
organ  to  another  through  the  public  highways,  the  blood  (really 
more  like  a  moving  platform).  So  they  christened  them  all 
hormones,  deriving  the  word  from  the  Greek  verb  meaning  to 
rouse  or  set  in  motion.  As  a  science  is  a  well-made  language,  a 
new  word  is  an  event.  It  sums  up  details,  economizes  brain- 
work  and  so  is  cherished  by  the  intellect.  The  study  of  the 
internal  secretions  has  advanced  by  leaps  and  bounds  since  it 
became  convenient  to  speak  of  them  as  hormones.  Withal,  the 
brilliant  work  of  Bayliss  and  Starling  stands  as  the  third  great 
foundation  stone,  the  first  Claude  Bernard's  and  the  second 
Brown-Sequard's,  in  the  architecture  of  the  modern  concepts  of 
the  internal  secretions. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  GLANDS:  THYROID  AND  PITUITARY 

The  glands  of  internal  secretion,  the  history  of  which,  as  tools 
of  thought,  I  reviewed  in  the  previous  chapter,  have  each  an 
interesting  evolutionary  story.  Without  some  acquaintance  with 
that  story,  the  rough  outline  of  their  physical  architecture,  and 
the  particular  work  they  are  called  upon  to  perform  in  the  body, 
no  adequate  understanding  of  their  influence  upon  types  of 
human  nature  and  personality  is  possible. 

The  Thyroid  Gland 

This  gland  consists  of  two  maroon  colored  masses  astride  the 
neck,  above  the  windpipe,  close  to  the  larynx.  These  are  bridged 
by  a  narrow  isthmus  of  the  same  tissue.  They  remind  one  of 
the  flaps  of  a  purse  opened  up.  The  gland  has  always  attracted 
much  attention  because  its  enlargement  constitutes  the  prominent 
deformity  known  as  goitre. 

To  begin  with,  the  thyroid  was  once  a  sex  gland,  pure  and 
simple.  In  the  lowest  vertebrates  and  in  the  homologous  tissues 
of  the  higher  invertebrates,  the  fractions  of  the  thyroid  are  inti- 
mately connected  with  the  ducts  of  the  sexual  organs.  They 
are  indeed  accessory  sexual  organs,  uterine  glands,  satellites  of 
the  sex  process.  From  Petromyzon  upward  that  relationship  is 
lost,  the  thyroid  migrates  more  and  more  to  the  head  region,  to 
become  the  great  link  between  sex  and  brain.  How  alive  that 
function  still  is,  is  grossly  shown  by  the  swelling  of  the  gland 
with  sexual  excitement,  menstruation  and  pregnancy. 

Relative  to  the  body  weight  it  is  largest  in  the  mammalia, 
and  smallest  in  the  fishes.  It  therefore  grows  larger  as  the 
vertebrate  ascends  in  the  scale.  It  has,  in  fact,  developed  in 
direct  proportion  to  and  side  by  side  with  the  fundamental, 
differentiating  vertebrate  characteristics.  Of  these,  the  posses- 
sion of  a  dry  hairy  skin  instead  of  a  moist  or  mucus  bearing, 
chitinous  skin,  the  ownership  of  an  internal  bony  skeleton  and 


THE  GLANDS:  THYROID  AND  PITUITARY        47 

a  large  skull,  and  a  complicated  development  of  brain,  are  the 
diagnostic  signs.  Thyroid  internal  secretion  has  a  very  definite 
controlling  relation  to  all  of  them:  to  skin,  its  hairiness,  mois- 
ture and  amount  of  mucus,  to  the  growth  and  size  of  the  bones, 
especially  the  bones  of  the  extremities  and  the  skull,  and  to 
intelligence  and  the  complexity  of  the  convolutions  of  the  brain. 
Injury  to  the  thyroid,  especially  in  growing  animals,  is  followed 
by  profound  retrogression  or  arrest  of  development  in  skin, 
skeleton  and  brain. 

In  the  fishes  and  the  cyclostomes  the  thyroid  is  represented 
only  by  some  small  scrubby  patches,  little  larger  than  the  heads 
of  pins,  scattered  along  the  aorta,  the  great  blood  vessels  from 
the  heart,  and  out  a  little  way  along  each  gill.  It  becomes  larger 
and  more  compact  among  the  amphibians  and  reptiles,  but  still 
remains  quite  small.  Large  and  prominent  among  the  birds  and 
mammalia,  it  is  largest  and  most  prominent  among  the  primates 
and  man.  It  is  hence  permissible  to  think  of  the  thyroid  as  a 
dictator  of  evolution,  to  crown  it  as  the  vertebrate  gland  par 
excellence,  and  to  call  the  typical  vertebrate  brand  marks  sec- 
ondary thyroid  characteristics  in  precisely  the  sense  of  Darwin 
classing  the  horns  of  cattle  as  secondary  sexual  characteristics. 

In  such  enthusiasm  for  the  thyroid  as  a  determinant  of  evolu- 
tion, its  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  column  of  fire  by  night,  one 
should  not  forget  the  other  glands  of  internal  secretion.  In  them 
all,  we  may  suppose,  Life,  tired  of  inventing  merely  prehensile, 
destructive  and  reproductive  organs,  hit  upon  the  happy  thought 
of  contrivances  which  are  in  essence  chemical  factories  to  speed 
up  the  rate  of  variation  and  so  of  a  higher  evolution. 

Creator  of  the  Land  Animal 

According  to  this  conception  the  thyroid  played  a  fundamental 
part  in  the  change  of  sea  creatures  into  land  animals.  Experi- 
mentally, thyroid  has  been  used  to  transform  one  into  the  other. 
Thus  the  occasional  change  of  a  Mexican  axolotl,  a  purely  aquatic 
newt,  breathing  through  gills,  into  the  ambly stoma,  a  terrestrial 
salamander,  with  spotted  skin,  breathing  by  means  of  lungs,  has 
long  been  known.  Feeding  the  axolotl  on  thyroid  gland  pro- 
duces the  metamorphosis  very  quickly,  even  if  the  axolotl  is  kept 
in  water.  In  the  reptile  house  at  the  London  Zoological  Gardens 
full-grown  examples  of  the  common  black  axolotl  and  the  pretty 
white  variety  are  exhibited.    Some  are  nearly  three  inches  long. 


48       THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

Alongside  are  shown  several  examples  of  the  amblystoma  stage, 
produced  in  one  of  the  laboratories  of  Oxford  University  and  at 
the  gardens  by  thyroid  feeding.  A  variation  of  the  thyroid  in 
the  direction  of  increased  secretion  was  probably  responsible  for 
the  first  land  animals. 

Thyroxin,  Secretion  of  the  Thyroid 

Under  the  microscope,  as  in  the  test  tube,  the  thyroid  shows 
remarkable  and  unique  features.  Closed  spherules  lined  by  a 
single  layer  of  cells  enclosing  a  gelatinous  material  known  as 
colloid,  which  stains  deeply  with  acid  dyes,  comprise  the  units  of 
its  architecture.  Essentially,  it  may  be  pictured  as  a  series  of 
jelly  bubbles  secreted  by  outlying  cells. 

A  relatively  high  percentage  of  iodine  is  the  unique  distinctive 
fact  in  its  chemistry.  Discovered  by  Baumann  in  1895,  the 
presence  of  the  element  has  focused  the  intelligence  of  chemists 
upon  the  gland,  with  the  consequent  demonstration  of  arsenic 
also  in  it.  It  was  soon  manifest  that  the  secretion  of  the  gland 
was  dependent  upon  the  iodine  content  for  its  activity.  Active 
extracts  of  the  thyroid  like  thyreoglobulin  and  iodothyrin  were 
proven  to  contain  iodine,  and  to  become  inactive  when  the  iodine 
was  removed.  Efforts  to  isolate  the  iodine  containing  active 
principle  in  pure  form  were  fruitless  until  the  work  of  Kendall 
at  the  Mayo  Foundation.  He  obtained  it  as  a  white,  finely 
crystalline,  odorless  and  tasteless  substance,  heat  stable,  and 
analyzable.  The  free  form  separates  as  a  sheaf  of  fine  needles. 
Kendall  at  first  called  it  the  a-iodine  compound,  then  named  it 
thyroxin. 

There  are  other  internal  secretions  of  the  thyroid,  with  a  func- 
tion of  their  own,  that  have  no  iodine.  But  they  are  secondary, 
and  obscure.  Thyroxin  is  accepted  today  as  the  purified  internal 
secretion  of  the  thyroid  because  all  the  effects  of  the  whole  gland 
may  be  elicited  with  it.  Thyroxin  produces  results  with  doses 
amazingly  minute  compared  with  the  quantity  of  whole  gland 
necessary.  Moreover,  a  dose  of  thyroxin  appears  to  last  an 
organism  in  need  of  it  over  a  period  of  time;  the  other  has  to  be 
administered  continuously. 

Studies  with  thyroxin  carried  on  in  recent  years  have  rounded 
out  the  whole  concept  of  the  business  of  the  thyroid  in  the  body 
economy.  One  may  sum  it  up  by  saying  that  the  thyroid  secre- 
tion is  the  great  controller  of  the  speed  of  living.    The  more  thy- 


THE  GLANDS:  THYROID  AND  PITUITARY        49 

roid  one  has,  the  faster  one  lives;  the  less  one  has,  the  more  slowly 
one  lives. 

That  is  not  to  imply  any  direct  proportion  between  the  amount 
of  thyroid  secretion  in  an  individual,  and  the  length  of  life  to 
which  he  is  destined.  The  speed  of  living,  in  the  chemical  sense 
(which  is  the  fundamental  sense),  and  the  rate  at  which  the 
chemical  reactions  go  on  that  constitute  the  process  of  life,  are 
dependent  upon  the  thyroid.  When  the  reactions  go  faster,  more 
oxygen  and  food  material  are  burned  up  or  oxidized,  more  energy 
is  liberated,  the  metabolic  wheel  rotates  more  quickly,  the  indi- 
vidual senses,  feels,  thinks  and  acts  more  quickly. 

Likening  one  energy  machine  to  another,  the  thyroid  may  be 
compared  to  the  accelerator  of  an  automobile.  That  is  a  rough 
and  superficial  comparison  because  an  accelerator  lets  in  more 
of  the  fuel  to  be  burned  up,  while  the  thyroid  makes  the  fuel 
more  combustible.  It  thus  resembles  more  the  primer,  for  a  rich 
mixture  of  gasoline  and  air  burns  at  a  greater  velocity  than  a 
poor  one.  But  the  action  of  thyroid  could  really  be  simulated 
only  by  some  substance  that  could  be  introduced  into  the  best 
possible  of  gasoline  mixtures,  to  increase  its  combustibility  by  a 
hundred  per  cent  or  more.  For  that  is  what  thyroid  will  do  to 
our  food.  Nor  has  it  only  this  destructive  or  combustion  side. 
Withal  there  is  at  the  same  time  a  constructive  action,  for  the 
process  frees  energy  to  be  used  for  heat,  motion  or  other  need. 
The  thyroid,  therefore,  in  addition  to  its  role  as  an  accelerator, 
acts,  too,  as  the  efficient  lubricator  for  energy  transformations. 
So  we  see  it  as  accelerator,  lubricator  and  transformer  of  our 
energies. 

The  Gland  of  Energy  Production 

The  isolation  of  thyroxin  has  made  possible  the  determination 
of  the  influence  of  the  thyroid  hormone  upon  the  evolution  of 
energy  in  any  higher  animal  organism.  There  is,  for  every  indi- 
vidual, a  constant,  known  as  the  metabolic  rate,  or  the  combus- 
tion rate,  a  reading  of  the  rate  at  which  his  cells  are  consuming 
material  for  heat.  The  metabolic  rate  is  thus  a  gauge  of  the 
energy  pressure  within  the  organism.  It  may  be  calculated  by 
measuring  the  amount  of  carbon  dioxide  gas  exhaled  during  a 
unit  of  time,  and  the  number  of  calories  of  heat  radiated  by  the 
skin  simultaneously.  A  simplified  device  has  lately  rendered  it 
practicable  to  make  actual  determinations  by  a  few  five-minute 


50       THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

readings  of  the  rate  of  oxygen  absorption  by  the  lungs.  Plummer, 
also  connected  with  the  Mayo  Foundation,  has  shown  that  what 
would  amount  to  less  than  a  grain  of  the  thyroxin  would  more 
than  double  the  amount  of  energy  produced  in  a  unit  of  time. 
To  be  exact,  one  milligram  of  thyroxin  increases  the  metabolic 
rate  two  per  cent.  That  illustrates  some  of  the  power  of  the 
internal  secretion  of  the  thyroid  and  its  importance  to  normal 
life. 


The  Mobilization  of  Energy 

But  not  only  is  the  height  of  pressure  of  energy  in  the  cells 
controlled  by  the  thyroid.  The  mobility  of  that  energy  is  also 
controlled.  Without  it,  rapid  and  large  fluctuations  of  energy 
output,  and  elasticity  and  flexibility  of  energy  mobilization  for 
any  sudden  mental  or  muscular  act,  let  alone  an  emergency,  be- 
come impossible.  A  woman  suffering  with  myxedema,  the  con- 
dition described  by  the  English  physician  Gull  as  a  cretinoid 
state  supervening  in  the  adult  life  of  woman,  has  an  insufficient 
amount  of  thyroxin  in  her  blood  and  tissues.  She  is  clumsy 
and  awkward  and  will  stumble  when  endeavoring  to  walk  up- 
stairs. Any  effort  is  almost  paralyzed  because  the  range  of 
fluctuation  of  energy,  the  ability  to  mobilize  energy,  in  turn  de- 
pendent upon  an  ability  to  increase  the  metabolic  rate,  is  limited. 
In  slang  phrase,  she  cannot  step  on  it.  Her  existence  is  set  to  go 
at  a  rate  in  the  neighborhood  of  forty  per  cent  below  the  normal. 
By  the  administration  of  thyroxin,  her  metabolic  rate  can  be 
raised  to  any  desired  figure,  the  spark  can  be  adjusted,  so  to 
speak,  to  any  point  we  like,  and  it  can  be  so  maintained  for 
years. 

In  the  normal  animal,  to  be  sure,  the  internal  secretion  of 
the  thyroid  is  not  absolutely  essential  to  life.  So  it  contrasts 
with  the  hormone  of  the  minute  parathyroids  placed  so  closely  to 
it,  a  minimum  dose  of  which  is  absolutely  a  prerequisite  for  con- 
tinued life.  The  fundamental  chemical  reactions  within  the  cells 
occur  in  the  complete  absense  of  thyroxin.  But  they  go  on  in 
a  relatively  fixed,  rigid  and  unvarying  way,  confined  within  the 
narrow  limits  of  a  constant  figure.  Under  such  conditions,  the 
level  of  energy  production  is  bound  to  be  low,  and  to  remain  low, 
and  the  modus  of  its  mobilization  slow  and  unwieldy.  With 
thyroid  is  introduced  the  trick  of  catalysis,  or  the  speeding  up  of 
the  vital  chemical  reactions,  through  the  agency  of  an  intermedi- 


THE  GLANDS:  THYROID  AND  PITUITARY        51 

ate  which  accelerates  the  process.  It  is  par  excellence  the  great 
catalyst  of  energy  in  the  body.  (A  catalyst  is  an  intermediary 
like  the  trace  of  water,  which  will  bring  about  an  explosion  be- 
tween dry  oxygen  and  hydrogen  that  without  it  have  stayed 
inert  with  the  strongest  currents  of  electricity.)  Thus  it  supplies 
a  mechanism  not  only  for  quantity  output  of  that  subtle  reality 
we  label  energy,  but  also  an  apparatus  for  varying  the  available 
amount  of  it,  and  for  permitting  the  maximum  range  in  ease  and 
rapidity  of  its  utilization.  The  thyroid  is  still  another  device  of 
life  for  procuring  more  and  more  variation  and  differentiation,  its 
goal,  as  far  as  we  can  peer  through  the  opalescent  screen  upon 
which  its  manifestations  quiver. 

From  another  point  of  view,  the  thyroid  may  be  looked  upon 
as  the  organ  evolved  for  maintaining  the  same  amount  of  iodine 
in  the  blood  as  there  is  in  sea  water.  Sea  water  was  our  original 
habitat,  since,  like  Venus,  we  have  all  come  up  out  of  the  sea. 

The  more  intimate  study  of  the  composition  of  the  blood  has 
revealed  the  most  astonishing  parallelism  between  it  and  the 
compounds  of  sea  water.  The  blood  is  sea  water,  to  which  has 
been  added  hemoglobin  as  a  pigment  for  carrying  oxygen  to 
the  cells  not  in  direct  contact  with  the  atmosphere,  nutrients  to 
take  the  place  of  the  prey  our  marine  ancestors  gobbled  up 
frankly  and  directly,  and  white  cells  to  act  as  the  first  line  of 
defense.  To  keep  the  concentration  of  iodine  in  the  blood  a  con- 
stant, the  thyroid  evolved,  since  there  is  no  iodine  in  most  foods 
and  very  little  in  those  which  do  contain  it. 

That  a  minimum  amount  of  iodine  in  the  food  is  necessary  to 
health  is  shown  by  the  existence  of  goitre  regions.  Around  some 
of  the  Great  Lakes  in  the  United  States,  for  instance,  the  water 
does  not  contain  enough  iodine.  As  a  result,  numerous  cases  of 
goitre  occur.  Iodine  in  the  form  of  sodium  iodide  in  small  doses 
will  act  as  a  prophylactic.  The  amount  of  iodine  in  the  blood  is 
about  one  or  two  parts  to  ten  millions,  and  that  of  the  liver  is 
about  three  or  four  parts  to  ten  millions.  Since  the  liver  is  the 
most  complex  and  active  chemical  factory  in  the  body,  its 
appropriation  of  a  greater  amount  of  iodine  for  itself  is  under- 
standable. 

When  thyroxin  is  administered  in  a  single  dose,  there  is  a  dis- 
tinct lag  in  the  absorption  of  it  by  the  tissues.  A  single  dose  does 
not  generate  its  maximum  effect  until  the  tenth  day.  This  effect 
continues  for  about  ten  days.  Then  there  is  a  gradual  decrease 
in  the  intensity  of  reaction  for  another  ten  days.    So  that  the 


52        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

length  of  time  a  single  administration  of  thyroxin  functions  with- 
in the  body  is  about  three  weeks.  Again  we  have  occasion  to 
notice  a  protective  device  of  the  cells.  Since  the  presence  of 
thyroxin  in  the  tissues  determines  the  rate  at  which  they  burn 
themselves  up,  it  is  obvious  that  if  there  were  no  mechanism 
for  retarding  its  action,  and  at  need  varying  it,  they  really  would 
set  fire  to  themselves.  That  is  to  say,  if  the  tissues  held  a 
maximum  of  the  thyroid  internal  secretion,  and  had  to  take  up 
more  and  more  as  it  was  fed  out  to  them  by  the  thyroid  through 
the  blood,  the  pressure  of  energy  production  would  attain  the 
state  of  a  boiler  without  a  safety  valve.  Even  if  self-destruction 
were  avoided  by  the  ingestion  of  the  largest  quantities  of  energy- 
bearing  foods,  rest  for  the  cells  would  be  difficult,  if  not  impos- 
sible. 

The  thyroxin  in  the  tissues  diminishes  after  a  period  of  great 
exertion,  the  thyroxin  probably  being  carried  back  to  the  thyroid 
gland  and  kept  there  as  reserve  until  further  demand.  So  it  has 
been  discovered  that  during  the  winter  months,  the  thyroid  glands 
of  beef,  sheep  and  hogs  all  contain  much  less  iodine  than  during 
the  summer  months.  During  the  winter  months,  manifestly,  more 
energy  is  required  to  maintain  body  temperature,  hence  the  gland 
surrenders  more  of  its  secretion  to  the  tissues  and  so  keeps  less 
of  it  itself.  There  must  be,  too,  a  certain  wearing  out  of  the 
potency  of  the  iodine  with  time.  Even  dead  inorganic  catalysts, 
made  of  simple  elements,  wear  out  after  having  been  used  time 
and  time  again. 

Though  the  thyroid  is  the  supreme  energizer,  life  is  incom- 
patible with  a  certain  excess  of  it.  Death  can  be  produced  by 
successive  daily  injections  of  its  internal  secretion.  But  it  has, 
besides  the  energizing  effect,  certain  formative  and  nervous  influ- 
ences equally  marvelous.  As  illustrations,  there  are  the  cases  of 
thyroid  deprivation  in  human  beings,  cretinism  and  myxedema, 
as  well  as  those  in  which  it  is  believed  there  occurs  an  excess  of 
the  thyroid  secretion  in  the  blood  and  tissues,  the  condition  of 
hyperthyroidism. 

Cretinism  as  Thyroid  Deficiency 

Not  that  there  is  any  arresting  contrast  of  startling  difference 
between  the  phenomena  presented  by  different  species.  The 
younger  the  animal,  the  grosser  the  morbid  symptoms  witnessed. 
The  animal  fails  to  grow.    The  bones  and  cartilage,  except  of 


THE  GLANDS:  THYROID  AND  PITUITARY        53 

the  skull,  fail  to  develop.  The  abdomen  projects  and  becomes 
large  and  flabby.  The  sex  organs  atrophy.  There  is  sterility. 
Pregnant  rabbits  abort,  hens  produce  very  small  eggs  or  none 
at  all.    These  are  the  results  of  removing  the  thyroid  in  animals. 

Apathetic,  indifferent,  dirty,  awkward,  apparently  idiotic, 
describe  the  human  cretins.  Their  skin  is  rough  and  coarse, 
peeling  in  sheets.  In  some  it  is  considerably  knarled  and  creased 
as  in  the  aged,  and  in  others  swollen,  hard  and  resistant.  The 
hair  becomes  shaggy  and  rough,  losing  all  luster,  and  tends  to 
grow  irregularly  and  fall  out.  The  temperature  becomes  sub- 
normal and  an  anemia  supervenes.  There  is  a  distinct  reduction 
in  the  resistance  to  infections  and  intoxications. 

Cretinism  in  the  human  is  a  condition  in  which  the  burning 
taper  we  call  Life  flickers  and  smoulders  and  smokes.  Thirty 
years  ago  it  was  an  example  of  the  most  hopeless  idiocy.  Whole 
populations  were  afflicted  with  it.  But  neither  man  of  science, 
nor  bigot-fanatic,  assured  by  the  Divine  Confidence  of  its  mean- 
ing as  a  visitation,  believed  it  could  be  modified  an  iota..  Today, 
that  inept  word  "cure"  may  be  applied  to  our  power  of  attack 
upon  it,  provided  it  is  permitted  to  attack  early  enough.  Modifi- 
cation, in  the  direction  of  the  most  surprising  betterment,  is  the 
miracle  that  has  been  wrought. 

The  history  of  a  cretin  runs  somewhat  as  follows:  A  baby  is 
born,  which  in  all  appearances  seems  normal.  Perhaps  the  nose 
is  a  trifle  squatter  than  even  the  average  new-born's  flat  nose. 
There  may  also  be  abnormal  sleepiness,  greater  even  than  that 
of  the  normal  baby  in  the  first  month  or  two  in  that  there  is 
no  spontaneous  awakening  from  the  coma  for  food.  But  in  most 
cases  this  is  put  down  to  normal  variability,  or  maybe  to  that 
limbo  of  all  a  baby's  troubles:  weakness.  After  some  months,  it 
is  noticed  that  the  infant  is  failing  to  grow  at  the  normal  rate, 
either  physically  or  mentally.  Examination  at  this  time  reveals 
a  curious  thickening  of  the  dental  ridges.  Then  the  tongue  takes 
the  centre  of  the  scene,  by  becoming  unusually  thick  and  promi- 
nent, to  the  point  of  projecting  beyond  the  mouth  at  all  times, 
and  interfering  with  breathing,  when  the  infant  is  in  a  recumbent 
position. 

More  and  more  of  the  characteristics  of  the  affection  turn  up. 
The  queer,  repulsive,  pitiful  face  of  the  cretins,  which  makes  them 
all  seem  brothers  or  twins,  shapes  itself.  A  yellowish,  white  or 
waxy  pallor;  rough,  dry,  scaly,  bloated  skin;  swollen,  often 
wrinkled  brow ;  watery  eyes,  often  almost  concealed  by  the  thick- 


54       THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

ened  eyelids ;  the  depressed  pug  nose  with  its  wide,  thick  nostrils ; 
large,  erect  ears;  the  wobbly,  drooling  tongue,  sticking  out  at 
one,  yet  not  in  derision;  the  hair  thin,  and  like  tow  in  texture 
rather  than  human;  eyebrows  and  eyelashes  are  scant,  and  often 
absent;  the  nails  short,  thin  and  brittle;  the  teeth,  very  late  in 
coming,  may  be  represented  by  a  few  sharp  points,  irregular, 
decaying  quickly,  sometimes  not  succeeded  at  all  by  those  of  the 
second  dentition. 

Whatever  growth  occurs  is  irregular  and  disproportionate.  The 
trunk,  though  small  compared  with  the  head,  appears  massive 
against  the  background  of  the  diminutive  extremities.  The  back 
is  somewhat  humped,  arching  at  the  waist-line,  while  the  abdo- 
men protrudes  like  a  balloon,  with  a  hernia,  often,  at  the  navel. 
The  extremities  are  short,  bowed,  cold,  and  livid,  covered  with 
rolls  of  the  infiltrated  skin,  rolls  which  cannot  be  smoothed  out. 
Hands  and  feet  are  broad,  pudgy,  and  floppy,  the  fingers  stiff, 
square  and  spade-like,  the  toes  spread  apart,  like  a  duck's,  by 
the  solid  skin.  Above  the  collar  bones  there  are  frequently  great 
pads  of  fat  which  sometimes  encircle  the  narrow  bull  neck. 

The  mental  state  varies  with  the  degree  of  deprivation  of  the 
internal  secretion  of  the  thyroid.  In  the  worst  cases  it  is  repul- 
sively vegetable.  Even  the  intelligence  common  to  the  higher 
animals  is  wanting.  The  cretins  of  the  "human  plant"  kind,  as 
they  have  been  nicknamed,  will  not  recognize  mother  or  father 
or  any  person  about  them,  or  even  a  person  from  an  object,  and 
manifest  no  interest  in  anything  or  anybody,  not  even  toys. 
Hunger  and  thirst  they  manifest  by  grunts  and  inarticulate 
sounds,  or  by  screaming.  They  neither  smile,  cough,  nor  laugh, 
but  sit  like  sphinxes,  breathing,  but  not  reacting. 

There  are,  of  course,  all  grades  and  varieties.  There  are  those 
who  recognize  parents  and  familiar  faces,  and  exhibit  some  evi- 
dence of  affection  for  them,  acquire  a  limited  vocabulary,  and 
then  cease,  no  progress  possible  even  with  the  alphabet.  They 
attain  the  size  and  age  of  two  or  three  years  and  there  stop  alto- 
gether, as  if  a  permanent  brake  were  applied  to  the  wheels  of 
their  growth.  Some  higher  types  may  even  come  to  speak  con- 
nected sentences,  and  exhibit  a  certain  mild  spontaneity,  though 
stupid  and  slow  and  abnormally  deliberate,  resembling  the  ac- 
quired form  of  thyroid  deprivation  or  insufficiency,  for  which 
Ord  invented  the  name  myxedema. 

I  have  filled  in  with  some  detail  this  thumbnail  sketch  of  thy- 
roid deprivation  as  it  occurs  in  infancy  to  illustrate  how  wide  a 


THE  GLANDS:  THYROID  AND  PITUITARY         55 

sweep  the  gland's  lariat  embraces.  Skin,  hair,  bones,  muscle  and 
fat,  brain  and  intelligence,  growth  and  development,  are  modified 
precisely  as  the  size  and  shape  of  certain  crystals  are  modified 
by  the  presence  or  absence  of  ingredients  in  an  apparently  homo- 
geneous solution.  A  fertilized  ovum,  in  which  the  predecessor 
of  the  thyroid  gland  is  present,  that  is  to  say,  in  which  there  is 
the  seed  and  soil  for  its  sprouting,  looks  the  same  as  one  without 
that  formative  material.  Yet,  when  the  time  comes  for  the 
internal  secretion  of  the  thyroid  to  put  in  its  oar  in  the  metabolic 
game,  its  presence  or  absence  makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world 
to  the  individual. 

In  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  the  concentra- 
tion of  phosphorus  in  the  brain  was  established  as  significant, 
the  cry  for  the  emphasis  of  that  fact  was — without  phosphorus 
no  thought  is  possible.  We  can  much  more  relevantly  declare 
that  without  thyroid,  no  thought,  no  growth,  no  distinctive 
humanity  or  even  animality  is  possible.  For  the  epigram  about 
phosphorus  was  bombast,  since  it  can  be  declaimed  with  equal 
truth  that  without  oxygen,  without  carbon,  without  nitrogen, 
without  any  of  the  food  elements  that  go  to  make  up  the  chemical 
composition  of  brain  matter,  no  thought  is  possible.  Indeed,  if 
one  were  set  upon  the  indictment  of  a  single  chemical  element  as 
the  begetter  of  consciousness,  the  prisoner  at  the  bar  would  have 
to  be  copper.  There  is  more  copper  in  the  brain  by  a  considerable 
degree  than  in  any  other  organ  of  the  body.  Which  perhaps 
will  be  exceedingly  regretted  by  the  patrons  of  the  aristocracy  of 
the  soul  who  would  have  it  as  an  emanation  of  a  deposit  in  the 
brain  of  silver  at  least,  if  not  gold.  They  are  like  the  old  lady 
who  would  never  permit  herself  to  be  cured  of  her  ailments 
except  by  gold  plated  pills.  Copper,  however,  is  not  necessary 
to  intelligence.  Without  thyroid  there  can  be  no  complexity  of 
thought,  no  learning,  no  education,  no  habit-formation,  no  re- 
sponsive energy  for  situations,  as  well  as  no  physical  unfolding 
of  faculty  and  function,  and  no  reproduction  of  kind,  with  no 
sign  of  adolescence  at  the  expected  age,  and  no  exhibition  of  sex 
tendencies  thereafter. 

Effects  of  Feeding  Thyroid 

How  subtly  the  internal  secretion  affects  every  phase  and 
aspect  of  child  as  well  as  adult,  by  doing  something  to  the  speed 
of  activities  in  their  cells,  is  told  straightway  by  the  effects  of 


56       THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

it  when  eaten  or  introduced  into  the  skin  or  blood  of  various 
people.  A  cretin,  idiotic,  dwarfish,  deformed,  hopeless,  an  inces- 
santly prodding  burden  of  sorrow  to  the  mother,  who  looks  upon 
the  masterpiece  she  had  labored  to  bring  forth,  and  beholds  a 
terrible  gargoyle,  becomes  transformed  when  fed  thyroid. 

In  a  few  days  the  cretin  will  get  warmer,  and  require  much 
less  wrapping  and  bed-clothing.  With  the  improvement  in  cir- 
culation, the  color  becomes  better  and  the  extremities  lose  their 
coldness.  In  a  week  or  so,  irritability  and  resentment  at  disturb- 
ance appear.  He  will  begin  to  recognize  and  know  his  parents, 
smile  and  play.  There  is  a  gradual  return  to  the  normal  of  the 
facial  appearance,  and  a  resumption  of  growth.  All  kinds  of 
marvelous  growth  effects  occur.  Twenty  teeth  may  be  cut  in 
six  months.  Coarse,  rough  dry,  shaggy  hair  becomes  fine,  silken, 
long  and  curly.  The  skin  becomes  soft,  moist  and  roseate. 
Inches  in  height  may  be  added  every  month.  Bright,  active,  even 
talkative,  are  the  descriptive  terms  an  observer  would  apply 
after  a  few  months.  A  complete  remaking  of  body  and  soul  is 
apparently  affected. 

Yet,  should  the  administration  of  the  thyroid  cease,  an  almost 
immediate  reversion  to  the  original  vegetative  condition  is  in- 
evitable. After  a  few  days,  reactiveness  slows  down,  the  child 
will  speak  only  when  spoken  to,  will  sit  quietly  in  a  chair  all  day 
and  act  semi- anesthetized.  Gradually  hair  and  skin  return  to 
the  previous  cold-blooded  animal  state,  and  the  whole  picture 
of  the  cretin  is  in  full  bloom.  Supplying  the  internal  secretion 
of  the  gland  promptly  repeats  the  transformation. 

One  wonders  what  is  to  be  the  ultimate  fate  of  these  reformed 
cretins.  Since  the  tale  of  the  opening  of  life  to  them,  once  con- 
sidered hopeless  idiots,  is  scarce  a  generation  old,  we  have  no 
data,  as  yet,  as  to  the  character  of  their  children  or  grand- 
children, their  adventures  and  vicissitudes,  in  short,  their  life 
history.  Those  of  whom  we  have  any  record  are  normal  and 
healthy  school  children  or  workers,  alive  to  the  interests  of  child- 
hood or  their  occupation  and  social  circles.  No  one  outside  their 
family  knows  that  they  are  cretins,  and  the  most  acute  observer 
would  be  hard  put  to  it  to  suspect.  What  a  theme  for  the  reflec- 
tions upon  appearances  the  eminent  Victorians  loved! 

There  are  possibilities  the  imagination  may  envisage.  One 
may  suppose  such  a  cretin,  with  all  his  other  ductless  glands 
intact,  grown  successfully  to  manhood  under  careful  medical 
guidance.    No  one  but  himself  is  aware  of  his  affliction,  outside 


THE  GLANDS:  THYROID  AND  PITUITARY        57 

of  his  medical  advisers.  Luck  aids  him  to  rise  in  the  world,  or 
perhaps  he  has  been  born  with  a  spoon  of  the  precious  metals  in 
his  mouth.  Adolescence,  love  and  marriage  dance  their  sequence. 
Our  hero  of  course  keeps  his  dread  secret  to  himself.  Whether 
such  an  omission  of  confidence  would  entitle  his  wife  to  a  divorce 
is  something  courts  will  be  called  upon  to  decide  sooner  or  later. 
But,  without  anticipating,  the  honeymoon  involves  a  trip  to  the 
South  Seas.  A  storm  and  a  wreck  throws  them  alone  on  an 
island,  tropical,  easy  to  live  on,  and  rescue  in  the  course  of  a 
few  months  certain.  The  man,  to  his  horror,  discovers  that  he 
has  saved  of  his  medicaments  only  a  pill  box  containing  half  a 
dozen  of  thyroid  tablets,  his  requirement  being  one  a  day.  He 
sees  them  go  day  by  day.  Finally  they  are  all  gone.  He  feels 
his  faculties  slipping  hour  by  hour.  Shall  he  tell  her?  Indecision 
grips  him,  and  he  delays  until  the  day  when  his  consciousness 
sinks  to  the  point  where  his  mind  no  longer  grasps  his  problem. 
The  wife  must  endure  the  spectacle  of  the  enchantment  of  her 
husband,  and  his  change  from  gallant  lover  to  dull  animal  ogre. 
A  new  version  of  Beauty  and  the  Beast! 

Cretinism  as  one  manifestation  of  a  soul  without  thyroid  or 
without  enough  thyroid  is  not  all.  The  first  great  successes  with 
thyroid  were  achieved  in  adults,  particularly  adult  women,  ex- 
hibiting a  peculiar  obesity,  coldness,  loss  of  hair  and  teeth  and  a 
remarkable  lassitude  and  torpor  that  might  be  summed  up  as  a 
chronic  drowsiness,  like  a  saturation  of  the  blood  with  some 
narcotic  drug.  Or  there  may  be  a  melancholia,  or  a  lack  of  ability 
to  seize  the  finer  points  of  a  mental  process,  or  an  argument 
treated  in  the  abstract.  Children  are  said  to  be  lazy,  slow  or 
dull.  They  experience  an  irritating  difficulty  in  understanding 
questions  and  expressing  their  wants  and  desires,  and  so  are  de- 
clared to  be  vicious,  or  stupid. 

All  these  are  grades  of  the  degeneration  which  Ord,  the  English- 
man, named  myxedema.  At  its  worst  it  is  a  sort  of  bloating  and 
drying  of  the  body  and  the  mind.  Then  there  is  infantilism, 
which  is  helped  by  the  giving  of  thyroid  extract.  It  differs  from 
the  ordinary  cretinism  in  that,  while  one  is  reminded  of  the 
latter  by  the  physical  stunting  and  the  other  stigmata,  there  is  a 
certain  amount  of  intelligence  which  enables  the  individual  to 
hold  his  own  while  he  is  a  child.  He  becomes  a  grown-up  baby: 
at  twenty  prefers  the  company  of  children  of  ten,  and  passes 
under  the  evil  influence  of  designing  so-called  normal  persons. 
So  dominated  he  will  lie,  steal,  start  fires,  commit  almost  any 


58       THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

crime,  with  no  inherent  flair  for  criminality,  but  because  of  a 
lack  of  independent  judgment  and  inability  to  resist  suggestion, 
and  a  desire  to  please  friends.  He  is  simply  an  overgrown  child 
who  still  loves  to  play  with  toys,  laughs  and  cries,  becomes  angry 
or  afraid,  unreasonably  and  ridiculously,  and  yells  for  mamma 
when  thwarted  or  scared. 

So  much  for  what  happens  when  there  is  not  sufficient  of  the 
thyroid  secretion  in  the  blood  and  tissues.  Now  to  consider  the 
effects  of  an  excess  of  it,  the  condition  called  hyperthyroidism, 
as  the  insufficiency  of  it  is  labelled  subthyroidism.  Too  much 
thyroxin  can  be  introduced  into  the  system  of  a  normal  indi- 
vidual, or  even  a  cretin  by  the  simple  administration  of  too 
large  doses  or  over  too  long  a  time.  Also  a  train  of  symptoms 
similar  to  those  evoked  by  an  oversecretion  of  the  thyroid  may 
be  mobilized  by  the  taking  of  too  much  iodine.  Great  sorrow, 
great  joy,  a  sudden  severe  jolt  to  the  nervous  equilibrium,  sexual 
excitement,  an  overwhelming  anger  or  grief  may  leave  in  their 
wake  a  permanent  hyperthyroidism.  The  symptoms  are  the 
reverse  of  cretinism  and  myxedema.  There  is  an  over-excitability 
of  the  nerves  in  place  of  sluggishness,  and  an  over-reactivity  of 
the  whole  organism  to  its  environment.  The  heart's  action  is 
too  fast,  and  under  the  slightest  stimulus  gets  faster  to  the  point 
of  obtruding  itself  into  the  conscious  mind  as  a  palpitation.  In- 
stead of  the  lowered  temperature  and  coldness  of  the  cretin,  there 
is  a  heightened  temperature,  one  or  two  degrees  above  the  normal, 
and  a  feeling  of  heat.  The  individual  has  a  high  warm  color, 
does  not  sleep  well,  becomes  or  remains  thin  no  matter  how  much 
he  or  she  eats,  is  abnormally  susceptible  sexually,  may  suffer  from 
a  definite  insomnia,  is  emotional,  and  perspires  freely.  Alert, 
neurotic  or  high-strung,  magnetic,  and  imaginative  are  some  of 
the  descriptive  adjectives  applicable.  The  eyes  are  bright  and 
prominent,  large  and  beautiful,  when  they  have  not  reached  the 
stage  entitled  "pop-eyed."  Or  they  may  even  become  so  pro- 
tuberant and  bulging  as  to  develop  the  expression  of  one  staring 
aghast  at  some  ineffable  horror.  The  latter  is  the  feature  of  only 
the  severest  types,  when  there  is  an  associated  goitre,  the  com- 
bination designated  as  exopthalmic  goitre. 

There  are,  too,  individuals  in  whom  hyperthyroidism  and 
hypothyroidism  are  mixed,  or  rather  alternate.  At  one  time  they 
present  the  phenomena  of  the  one,  at  another  of  the  other.  They 
are  the  people  who  complain  of  the  cyclic  quality  of  their  moods 
and  purposes.    Their  mood  will  be  a  heaven  of  exaltation  and 


THE  GLANDS:  THYROID  AND  PITUITARY         59 

exhilaration,  and  then  descend  into  a  slough  of  despond  from 
which  they  feel  themselves  inextricable.  They  are  always  talk- 
ing about  the  ups  and  downs  of  their  mental  states.  Headache 
and  languor  and  fatigability,  dry  skin  and  lack  of  appetite  for 
food  or  exertion  on  one  day  or  for  one  week,  give  way  on  the  next 
day,  or  for  the  next  week,  to  an  energetic  gayety,  and  sweaty, 
flushed  skin,  a  prominent  appetite  for  food  and  every  sort  of 
activity.  Driven  to  be  forever  on  the  go,  for  one  period,  in  the 
next  they  feel  like  lying  down  most  of  the  day,  with  no  inclina- 
tion for  any  life  whatever.  The  stage  of  depression  may  go  as 
far  as  a  melancholia,  the  stage  of  stimulation  as  far  as  mania. 
They  may  simulate  manic-depressive  or  cyclic  insanity.  Some- 
thing restrains  them,  and  holds  them  bound  as  in  a  vise  in  the 
one  cycle.  And  then  they  are  driven  on  beyond  themselves  by 
some  invisible  whip  in  the  next. 

Thyroid  as  Differentiator 

Besides  the  action  of  the  thyroid  as  energizer,  lubricator,  and 
growth  catalyzer,  it  has  a  remarkable  power  as  a  differentiator 
of  tissues.  It  determines  the  embryonic  etchings  of  the  different 
organs  which  in  their  totality  comprise  the  unique  individual. 
Every  multicellular  animal  must  first  have  existed  as  a  single 
cell,  the  impregnated  ovum.  With  the  body  and  personality  of 
the  ovum,  the  creature  is  one  and  continuous,  literally  something 
the  single  cell  has  made  of  itself  by  sub-dividing  and  differenti- 
ating. In  the  process,  the  cell  mass  often  goes  through  stages 
which  stand  out  as  individualities  in  themselves,  that  appear 
on  the  surface  absolutely  unrelated.  So  the  caterpillar  and  the 
butterfly,  to  the  naive  child,  seem  as  far  apart  as  worm  and 
bird.  In  the  case  of  the  frog,  the  tadpole  as  a  first  sketch  seems 
completely  an  impossible  and  wild  absurdity.  Yet  we  know 
that  there  is  an  orderly  progression  of  events,  a  propagation  of 
cells,  a  forward  going  arrangement  of  chemical  reactions,  that 
results  in  expansion  and  intricate  complication  of  the  organism. 
Just  what  the  forces  at  work  in  this  most  mysterious  of  all  natural 
processes  are,  has  been  an  intellectual  mystery  that  the  best 
minds  of  the  race  have  attempted  to  get  rid  of  with  words  like 
pangenesis  (Darwin).  Words  of  Black  (Mediterranean  or 
Greek  and  Latin)  origin,  as  Allen  Upward  has  named  them, 
always  cover  a  multitude  of  ignorances.  The  glands  of  internal 
secretion,  here,  as  in  so  many  other  dark  places,  provide  the  open 


60        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

sesame  to  certain  long  closed  doors  of  biology.  They  offer  them- 
selves to  us  as  the  first  definitely  tangible  agents  which  are 
known  to  keep  the  process  of  growth  going,  and  undoubtedly 
initiate  the  marvelous  unfolding  of  tissues  and  functions,  organs 
and  faculties  summed  up  as  development  or  differentiation. 

Thus  by  the  direct  feeding  of  thyroid  at  particular  points  in 
the  differentiating  history  most  curious  effects  have  been  elicited. 
If  the  gland  is  made  part  of  the  nutriment,  the  bathing  environ- 
ment, of  the  tadpole,  a  hastening  of  its  metamorphosis  is  attained. 
The  tadpole  lives  not  out  its  day  as  a  tadpole,  but  precociously 
turns  into  a  frog.  But  such  a  frog!  It  is  a  miniature  frog,  a 
dwarf  frog,  a  frog  seen  by  looking  through  the  wrong  end  of  the 
telescope,  a  frog  not  magnified,  but  micrified.  Frogs  have  been 
so  created  the  size  of  flies.  There  has  occurred  a  splitting  of  the 
two  reactions  which  ordinarily  go  hand  in  hand:  the  reaction  of 
growth  which  is  just  brute  increase  of  total  mass  or  weight  and 
volume,  and  the  reaction  of  differentiation  which  is  the  finer 
process.  The  picture  is  a  frog,  but  a  frog  the  size  of  a  tadpole, 
a  frog  which  has  missed  its  childhood,  adolescence  and  youth, 
skipping  over  these  transition  stages  into  the  adult  age,  as  a 
pigmy. 

It  is  all  as  if  a  baby  were  suddenly  to  grow  a  beard  and 
moustache,  evolve  and  shed  teeth,  and  acquire  the  manner  of  an 
earnest  citizen,  and  yet  retain  the  height  and  weight  of  a  baby. 
That  the  spectacle  of  such  a  superbaby  is  not  quite  the  most  fan- 
tastic of  all  improbabilities  is  shown  by  the  condition  of  progeria, 
first  recorded  by  the  Briton,  Hastings  Guilford.  A  queer  spec- 
tacle in  which  a  child  incontinently  grows  old  without  having 
lived — in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  or  months.  You  look  upon 
him  and  see  senility  on  a  small  scale,  but  with  all  its  peculiari- 
ties: wrinkled  skin,  apathy,  gray  hair  and  all  the  rest  of  it. 
All  we  can  say  about  it  is  that  it  is  probably  due  to  a  paralysis 
of  all  the  glands  of  internal  secretion,  a  removal  of  their  influence 
upon  the  cells.  Contrariwise  to  the  feeding  of  thyroid,  removal 
of  the  thyroid  of  tadpoles  will  prevent  their  development  into 
frogs.  If  iodine  is  then  fed  to  them,  say  mixed  with  flour,  normal 
metamorphosis  will  occur.  If  Body  is  the  tool  chest  which  we 
carry  about  with  us,  as  Samuel  Butler  said,  then  to  the  thyroid 
belongs  the  name  of  tool-maker. 

^  Another  function  of  thyroid  that  must  be  taken  into  considera- 
tion is  what  has  been  spoken  of  as  its  antitoxic  function — in 


THE  GLANDS:  THYROID  AND  PITUITARY        61 

plainer  English,  its  power  to  prevent  poisoning,  or  to  increase 
resistance  against  poisons,  including  the  bacteria  and  other  liv- 
ing agents  which  cause  the  infectious  diseases.    Each  molecule  of 
food,  ingested  for  assimilation  into  our  substance,  accumulates  a 
history  of  wanderings  and  pilgrimages,  attachments  and  trans- 
formations beside  which  the  gross  trampings  of  a  Marco  Polo 
become  the  rambling  steps  of  a  seven-league  booted  giant.     In 
the  course  of  its  peregrinations,  it  becomes  a  potential  poison, 
potential  because  it  is  never  allowed  to  grow  in  concentration  to 
the  danger  point.    The  thyroid  plays  its  role  of  protector  like  all 
the  internal  secretory  machines.     In  an  animal  deprived  of  a 
thyroid  the  feeding  of  meat  shortens  life — a  single  sample  of  how 
it  works  to  guard  against  intoxication  from  within.    The  feeding 
of  thyroid  will  also  raise  the  ability  of  the  cells  to  stand  poisons 
introduced  from  without — intoxications  of  all  sorts.    Alcohol  and 
morphine  will  affect  in  much  smaller  doses  the  subthyroid  person 
than  the  normal  or  the  hyperthyroid.    As  regards  the  infections, 
which   directly   or   indirectly   kill  most  of  us,  the  injection   of 
thyroid  will  increase  the  content  in  the  blood  of  the  protective 
antibodies  which  preserve  us,  temporarily  at  any  rate,  against 
malignant  invaders.    The  opsonins,  for  example,  those  substances 
which  butter  the  bacteria  so  that  the  appetite  of  the  white  cells 
for  them  is  properly  roused,  are  mobilized  by  thyroid  feeding  or 
injection.    Other  substances  in  the  blood  which  destroy  and  dis- 
solve bacteria  are  also  increased.     The  thyroid  probably  per- 
forms these  functions  by  sending  its  secretion  to  the  cells  directly 
responsible  for  the  immunity  reactions,  and  stimulating  them  to 
activity. 

A  sketch  of  the  thyroid  like  the  foregoing  shows  it  as  the  won- 
drous controller  of  vitality  and  growth,  and  indefatigable  pro- 
tector against  intoxicants  and  injuries.  When  it  is  sufficiently 
active,  life  is  worth  while;  when  it  is  defective,  life  is  a  difficult 
threatening  blackness.  That  would  make  it  out  as  the  gland  of 
glands.  It  is  tremendously  important,  without  a  doubt,  in  normal 
everyday  life.  But  no  more  so  than  the  other  members  of  the 
cast.  The  position  of  star  it  may  claim,  but  in  vain.  The  other 
glands  of  internal  secretion  to  be  sketched  will  each,  when  the 
marvels  of  its  business  in  the  cell-corporation  are  considered, 
present  itself  as  candidate  for  the  honors  of  the  president.  Jus- 
tice should  give  fair  credit  to  all  the  organs  which  fabricate  the 
reagents  of  individuality,  and  the  regulators  of  personality. 


62        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

The  Pituitary 

In  the  human  skull,  the  pituitary  is  a  lump  of  tissue  about 
the  size  of  a  pea  lying  at  the  base  of  the  brain,  a  short  distance 
behind  the  root  of  the  nose.  It  is  of  a  grayish-yellow  color, 
unpretentious  and  insignificant  enough  in  appearance,  and  so 
long  neglected  by  the  scientists  who  boast  their  immunity  to  the 
glamor  of  the  spectacular.  Guesses  at  its  nature  date  back  to 
Aristotle. 

Like  most  of  its  colleagues  among  the  glands  of  internal  secre- 
tion, it  is  really  two  glands  in  one,  two  glands  with  but  a  single 
name.  At  least  it  consists  of  two  different  parts,  distinct  in  their 
origin,  history,  function  and  secretions,  but  juxtaposed  and  fused 
into  what  is  apparently  a  homogeneous  entity.  They  are  conven- 
iently spoken  of  as  the  anterior  gland  and  the  posterior  gland. 

In  the  embryo,  the  anterior  gland  is  derived  by  a  proliferation 
of  cells  from  the  mouth  area.  The  posterior  gland  represents  an 
outgrowth  of  the  oldest  part  of  the  nervous  system.  When  it  is 
traced  back  along  the  tree  of  the  vertebrate  species,  it  is  found 
to  be  present  in  all  of  them.  An  ancient  invention,  its  precursor 
has  been  identified  in  worms  and  molluscs  and  even  among  the 
starfish.  "The  pituitary  is  practically  the  same,  from  myxine  to 
man."  A  trusted  veteran,  therefore,  among  the  internal  secre- 
tory organs,  its  importance  can  be  surmised. 

To  understand  the  story  of  the  pituitary,  variously  acquired 
bits  of  information  concerning  it  have  been  assembled  and  fitted 
together  like  the  fragments  of  a  picture  puzzle,  as  Cushing  has 
so  well  put  it.  Here  and  there  pieces  stick  out,  obviously  out  of 
place.  The  relations  of  some  of  them  to  one  another  or  to  the 
whole  design  are  not  at  all  clear.  Parts  appear  to  have  been 
irrevocably  lost,  or  not  yet  to  have  turned  up.  Chance  bystanders 
will  select  odd  figures  and  articulate  them  into  a  new  harmony. 
Yet  out  of  the  jumble  of  fragments,  a  fairly  respectable  insight 
has  been  gained  in  less  than  a  half  century. 

The  pituitary  is  cradled  in  a  niche  at  the  base  of  the  skull 
which,  because  of  its  form,  is  known  as  the  Sella  Turcica  or 
Turkish  saddle.  So  situated,  an  operative  approach  to  it  is 
overwhelmingly  difficult.  On  the  other  hand,  X-ray  studies  are 
favored.  "Nature's  darling  treasure"  it  might  be  called,  since 
there  has  been  provided  a  skull  within  the  skull  to  shelter  it. 

Under  the  most  highly  magnifying  lenses  of  the  microscope, 
three  kinds  of  cells  have  been  distinguished.   The  anterior  gland 


THE  GLANDS:  THYROID  AND  PITUITARY        63 

is  a  collection  of  solid  columns  of  cells,  surrounded  by  blood 
spaces  into  which  their  secretion  is  undoubtedly  directly  poured. 
A  gelatinous  material,  presumed  to  be  the  internal  secretion  of 
the  gland,  has,  in  fact,  been  observed  emerging  from  the  cells 
into  the  blood  spaces.  The  posterior  lobe,  or  gland,  consists  of 
secreting  cells  producing  a  glassy  substance  which  finds  its  way 
into  the  spinal  fluid  that  bathes  the  nervous  system.  The  spinal 
fluid  itself  is  a  secretion  of  another  gland  at  the  base  of  the  brain, 
the  choroid.  Nerves  and  internal  secretion  are  associated  here 
with  a  closeness  symbolic  of  their  general  relations. 

From  each  portion  of  the  gland  (to  stick  to  the  accepted  nom- 
enclature of  speaking  of  the  two  glands  as  one)  an  active  sub- 
stance has  been  isolated.  Robertson,  an  American  chemist, 
separated  from  the  anterior  lobe  a  substance  soluble  in  the  fat 
solvents,  like  ether  and  gasoline,  which  he  christened  tethelin. 
Tethelin,  when  fed  to  animals,  stimulates  their  growth,  so  that 
they  grow  faster  and  larger  than  control  animals  to  whom  it  has 
not  been  fed.  A  number  of  facts  favor  the  idea  of  the  anterior 
lobe  cells  as  stimulants  of  growth  of  bone  and  connecting  and 
supporting  tissues  generally.  From  the  posterior  lobe,  pituitrin, 
believed  its  internal  secretion,  has  been  obtained  in  solution. 

Pituitrin  is  a  substance  of  many  marvelous  functions.  In  gen- 
eral, it  controls  the  tone  of  the  tissues,  of  involuntary  or  smooth 
muscle  fibres  of  the  blood  vessels  and  the  contractile  organs  of 
the  body  like  the  intestines,  the  bladder  and  uterus.  When  in- 
jected, it  will  slowly  raise  the  blood  pressure  and  keep  it  raised 
for  some  time,  and  will  increase  the  flow  of  urine  from  the  kid- 
neys and  of  milk  from  the  breasts.  It  will  also  cause  an  intense 
continued  contraction  of  the  bladder  and  the  uterus.  It  is  also 
said  to  control  the  salt  content  of  the  blood  upon  which  its 
electrical  conductivity  and  other  properties  depend.  Normally, 
there  is  a  certain  fixed  ratio  of  the  salts  in  the  blood,  which  keeps 
them  like  the  ratio  in  sea-water.  Again,  we  have  an  example  of 
the  curious  atavism  of  the  internal  secretions.  The  thyroid, 
remember,  keeps  the  iodine  concentration  of  the  blood  like  that  of 
the  ocean,  our  original  habitat.  Pituitrin  likewise  does  its  part 
to  maintain  our  internal  environment  as  near  as  possible  to  what 
was  once  the  surrounding  medium.  A  substance  somewhat  similar 
has  been  found  in  the  skin  glands  of  toads. 

The  extraordinarily  well  protected  position  of  the  pituitary,  its 
persistence  throughout  life,  and  its  abundant  blood  supply,  em- 
phasize its  vital  importance.    No  other  gland  of  internal  secretion 


64        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

can  adequately  substitute  for  it.  Complete  expiration  means 
death,  in  two  or  three  days,  with  a  peculiar  lethargy,  unsteadiness 
of  gait  and  loss  of  appetite,  emaciation,  and  a  fall  of  temperature, 
so  that  the  animal  becomes  cold-blooded,  its  temperature  the 
same  as  that  of  the  atmosphere  it  occupies.  If  only  part  of  the 
anterior  lobe  is  taken  away,  there  occurs  a  remarkable  degenera- 
tion of  the  individual.  The  degeneration  is  not  a  mucinous  infil- 
tration of  the  skin  and  the  internal  organs  which  occurs  with 
thyroid  deprivation,  but  a  fatty  degeneration,  with  a  tendency  to 
inversion  of  sex.  A  singular  somnolence,  a  dry  skin,  loss  of 
hair,  a  dull  mentality,  sometimes  epilepsy,  and  a  noticeable  crav- 
ing for  and  tolerance  of  sweets  appear.  These  are  but  a  few  of 
the  observations  obtained  in  experimental  sub-pituitarism,  that  is, 
underaction  or  insufficient  secretion  of  the  pituitary,  produced  by 
removing  part  of  the  anterior  gland. 

If  such  an  experimental  sub-pituitarism  is  started  in  infancy, 
for  instance  in  puppies,  there  is  a  cessation,  or  marked  hindering 
and  slowing  of  growth.  That  is,  dwarfs  are  artificially  created. 
Apropos,  pathologists  have  shown  that  in  several  true  human 
dwarfs  the  gland  is  rudimentary  or  inadequate.  All  of  which 
goes  hand  in  hand  with  the  evidence  that  the  skeleton  stands 
directly  under  the  domination  of  the  pituitary. 

Regulator  of  Organic  Rhythms 

There  are  certain  other  singular  by-effects  of  the  gland  in  its 
relation  to  the  periodic  phenomena  of  the  organism  like  hiberna- 
tion, sleep,  and  the  critical  sex  epochs  of  both  sexes.  In  hiberna- 
tion, or  winter  sleep,  the  animal  in  cold  weather  passes  into  a 
cataleptic  state  in  which  it  continues  to  breathe,  more  deeply 
but  more  slowly  than  when  awake,  but  shows  no  other  signs  of 
consciousness  or  life.  A  lowered  blood  pressure  and  a  marked 
insensitivity  to  painful  and  emotional  stimuli  go  with  it.  There 
is  a  preliminary  storage  of  starch  in  the  liver,  and  of  fat  through- 
out the  fat  depots  of  the  body.  These  are  so  like  what  happens 
after  part  of  the  pituitary  is  removed,  that  a  comparison  of  the 
two  becomes  inevitable.  Common  to  both  conditions  is  a  drop 
in  the  rate  of  tissue  combustion  or  metabolism,  which  can  be 
relieved  by  injection  of  an  extract  of  the  pituitary,  a  rise  of 
temperature  occuring  simultaneously.  Moreover,  examination  of 
the  glands  of  internal  secretion  of  hibernating  species,  like  the 
woodfhufk,  during  the  period  of  hibernation,  shows  changes  in 
all  of  them,  but  most  marked  in  the  pituitary,  the  shrunken  cells 


THE  GLANDS:  THYROID  AND  PITUITARY        65 

staining  as  if  they  too  were  asleep,  or  in  a  resting  stage.  The 
characteristic  alive  qualities  of  these  cells  return,  without  relation 
to  food  or  climate,  when  the  animal  comes  to  in  the  spring,  at 
the  vernal  equinox.  Hibernation  may,  perhaps,  be  put  down 
to  a  seasonal  wave  of  inactivity  of  the  pituitary  gland. 

Now  winter  sleep  may  be  looked  upon  as  an  exaggeration  of 
ordinary  night  sleep,  the  latter  differing  from  the  former  only  in 
its  brevity.  In  the  natural  sleep  of  non-hibernating  species  there 
occurs,  too,  a  fall  in  temperature.  Moreover,  they  all,  even  man, 
have  a  certain  capacity  for  winter  sleep,  as  the  experiences  of 
travellers  and  explorers  in  the  arctic  regions  indicate.  In  certain 
parts  of  Russia,  where  there  is  a  scarcity  of  food  during  the 
winter  months,  the  peasants  pass  weeks  at  a  time  in  a  somnolent 
state,  arousing  once  a  day  for  a  scant  meal.  Just  as  the  sex 
glands  influence  the  body  and  mind  profoundly  with  a  certain 
cyclic  periodicity  of  activity  and  inactivity  (rut,  heat,  menstrual 
period  and  so  on),  which  has  been  demonstrated  to  have  a  very 
close  functional  relationship  with  the  pituitary,  so  sleep  and 
hibernation  will  bear  interpretation  as  products  of  a  temporary 
dormancy  of  the  same  gland.  We  have,  then,  to  set  up  in  the 
place  of  Morpheus  and  Apollo,  the  new  gods  of  the  internal  secre- 
tion of  a  chemical-making  bit  of  the  brain,  as  an  explanation  of 
the  rhythms  of  sleep  and  wakefulness. 

There  are  individuals  who  go  about  outside  of  hospital  walls, 
quasi-normally,  who  are  semi-hibernators  or  partial  hibernators, 
and  who  are  really  in  a  state  of  subpituitarism.  They  are  people 
who  may  have  something  wrong  or  inferior  with  their  pituitary, 
but  not  to  the  extent  of  interference  with  their  daily  life.  They 
go  about  with  their  type  stamped  upon  them  for  the  seeing  eye. 
The  classical  type  is  obese,  with  fat  distributed  everywhere,  but 
more  so  in  the  lower  abdomen  and  the  lower  extremities.  They 
are  slow  and  dull,  and  sexually  inactive,  often  impotent.  They 
are  sometimes  tall,  but  most  often  dwarfish,  and  may  be  subject 
to  epileptic  seizures.  They  recall  the  picture  of  what  happens 
to  young  dogs  partially  deprived  of  the  pituitary.  Dickens 
delivered  a  perfect  likeness  of  an  extreme  degree  of  the  condition 
in  the  Fat  Boy  of  the  "Pickwick  Papers,"  whose  employment 
with  Mr.  Wardle  consisted  in  alternate  sleeping  and  eating. 

When  the  Pituitary  Overacts 

All  grades  of  overaction  of  the  pituitary  exist.  Then  its  pecu- 
liar power  to  act  as  a  stimulant  to  the  growth  of  bone  and  the 


66        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

soft  supporting  and  connecting  tissues  like  tendons  and  ligaments 
comes  into  play.  If  the  overaction  or  excess  of  secretion  begins  in 
childhood  or  adolescence,  that  is,  before  puberty,  there  results  a 
great  elongation  of  the  bones,  so  that  a  giant  is  the  consequence. 
Now  giants  have  always  appealed  to  the  imagination  of  the  little 
man,  and  have  had  all  kinds  of  wonderful  abilities  ascribed  to 
them  by  him.  The  giants  and  ogres  of  folk-lore  and  fairy  tales 
are  favored  with  the  most  extraordinary  mental  advantages. 
Direct  and  analytic  acquaintance  with  the  giants  of  our  own 
day,  as  well  as  a  probing  of  their  conduct  in  the  past,  has  shown 
that  normal  giants — persons  of  exceptional  size  free  from  physical 
or  mental  deformities — are  rare.  There  are  people  with  hyper- 
pituitarism who  exhibit  the  highest  mental  powers.  In  them  is  an 
increased  activity  of  the  posterior  lobe  in  association  with  en- 
largement and  hyperfunction  of  the  anterior,  overgrowth  is  not  so 
marked,  and  the  individual  is  lean  and  mentally  acute.  But  the 
ordinary  giant  is  one  in  whom  there  is  degeneration  of  the  pitui- 
tary after  too  much  action  of  the  anterior  and  too  little  of  the 
posterior  glands.  A  tumor  or  disease  process  in  the  gland  is  most 
often  responsible. 

If  the  overaction  of  the  anterior  happens  after  puberty,  when 
the  long  bones  have  set,  and  can  not  grow  longer,  a  peculiar 
diffuse  enlargement  of  the  individual  occurs,  especially  of  his 
hands  and  feet  and  head.  The  nose,  ears,  lips  and  eyes  get 
larger  and  coarser.  As  these  people  are  rather  big  and  tall  to 
begin  with,  the  effect  produced  is  that  of  a  heavy-jawed,  burly, 
bulking  person,  with  bushy  overhanging  eyebrows,  and  an  aggres- 
sive manner.  For  there  is,  too,  something  distinctive  about  their 
mentality  which  has  been  as  often  portrayed  as  those  of  the  path- 
ologic giant.  Rabelais'  most  famous  character,  Gargantua,  be- 
longs to  the  group.  We  recruit  more  drum-majors  than  prime 
ministers  from  among  these  people.  They  often  suffer  much  from 
torturing  boring  headaches,  and  a  consequent  despondency  and 
feeling  of  hopelessness  which  colors  gray  the  entire  spiritual 
spectrum.  Up  to  a  certain  point  these  sufferers  have  a  remark- 
able alertness  and  capacity.  When  conscious  of  the  malady,  they 
often  meet  it  with  a  doggedly  courageous  optimism,  which  is  an- 
other characteristic,  although  women  occasionally  commit  suicide. 

In  both  the  semi-hibernators  who  remind  one  of  cattle,  and  in 
the  giant  or  acromegalic  types  who  remind  one  of  the  anthropoid 
ape,  there  develops  a  distinct  diminution  of  sexual  life.  An  ab- 
normal process  in  the  anterior  gland,  whether  of  oversecretion 


THE  GLANDS:  THYROID  AND  PITUITARY         67 

or  of  undersecretion,  may  interfere  with  the  proper  functioning 
of  the  posterior  gland,  the  secretion  of  which  is  tonic  not  only 
to  the  brain  cells,  but  also  to  the  sex  cells.  Thus,  young  animals 
deprived  of  the  pituitary  will  not,  if  male,  grow  spermatozoa,  nor 
ripe  ova  in  the  female.  Moreover,  the  feeding  of  pituitary  in- 
creases sexual  activity.  In  the  case  of  hens,  this  has  been  demon- 
strated to  be  about  thirty  per  cent  by  a  pretty  experiment.  At  a 
time  of  the  year  when  eggs  diminish,  six  hundred  and  fifty-five 
hens  laid  two  hundred  and  seventy-three  eggs  upon  an  ordinary 
diet.  When  pituitary  was  added  to  their  food  for  four  days, 
the  number  of  eggs  rose  to  three  hundred  and  fifty-two,  an  in- 
crease of  seventy-nine.  In  addition,  the  fertility  of  the  chicks 
born  of  these  eggs  was  augmented,  especially  if  both  parents 
had  been  fed  on  pituitary.  There  are  other  aspects  of  the  rela- 
tion of  the  pituitary  to  sex,  which  will  be  treated  in  another 
chapter. 

The  Bony  Cradle  of  the  Pituitary 

Always,  in  attempting  to  understand  the  pituitary,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  remember  that  it  is  tightly  packed  in  the  bony  cradle, 
the  Turkish  Saddle  or  Sella  Turcica.  Should  some  stimulus,  local, 
or  in  the  blood,  arouse  the  gland  to  growth,  a  good  deal  will 
depend  upon  whether  it  has  room  to  grow  in,  or  it  will  make 
room  by  eroding  the  bone.  With  space  for  the  formation  of  a 
large  anterior  and  posterior  pituitary  gland,  there  will  be 
created  the  long,  lean  individual,  with  a  tendency  to  high  blood 
pressure  and  sexual  trends,  great  mental  activity,  initiative,  irri- 
tability and  endurance.  An  outstanding  trait  of  these  favorites 
of  fortune  is  that  they  remain  thin  no  matter  how  much  food  they 
consume,  and  they  have  the  best  of  appetites.  They  often  are 
subject  to  severe  headaches  because  of  intermittent  swelling  of 
the  gland  against  the  bone  of  its  container. 

If  the  bony  container  is  or  becomes  too  small  for  its  contents, 
it  is  interesting  that  along  with  the  other  signs  of  pituitary  insuf- 
ficiency, such  as  undersize,  obesity,  and  asymmetry,  there  devel- 
opes  conspicuous  moral  and  intellectual  inferiority.  The  unfor- 
tunates suffer  from  compulsions  and  obsessions  and  lack  inhibi- 
tions. They  are  the  pathological  liars  with  little  or  no  initiative 
or  conscience — amoral,  not  merely  theoretically,  but  instinctively 
and  unconsciously,  with  all  the  certitude  and  perfection  of  the 
unconscious  accomplishment. 


68        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 
Thyroid  and  Pituitary 

The  thyroid  and  the  pituitary  have  often  been  compared.  The 
anterior  gland  and  the  thyroid  arise  from  almost  the  same  spot 
in  the  embryonic  oesophagus,  the  thyroid  being  an  outgrowth 
in  front,  the  anterior  pituitary  an  outgrowth  behind  of  the  same 
soil.  They  both  control  growth  marvelously,  also  the  differentia- 
tion, the  mass  and  intricacy  of  the  tissues.  But  they  differ  in  the 
site  of  their  control.  The  thyroid  bears  more  directly  upon  the 
inner  and  outer  coverings  of  the  body,  the  skin,  the  skin  glands 
and  the  hair,  the  mucous  membranes,  and  the  irritability  and  the 
preparedness  for  response  of  the  nerves.  The  pituitary  acts  more 
upon  the  framework  of  the  body,  the  skeleton  and  the  mechan- 
ical supports  and  movers.  Bone  and  ligament,  muscle  and  tendon 
seem  to  be  within  its  immediate  sway.  The  secretion  or  secre- 
tions of  the  pituitary  diffuse  directly  into  the  fluid  bathing  the 
nervous  system,  supplying  beneficent  stimulants  and  aiding  in 
the  abstraction  of  harmful  waste.  So  while  the  thyroid  raises  the 
energy  level  of  the  brain,  and  the  whole  nervous  system,  as  a  by- 
product of  its  general  awakening  effect  upon  all  the  cells  of  the 
body,  the  pituitary  probably  stimulates  the  brain  cells  more 
directly,  perhaps  in  the  manner  of  caffeine  or  cocaine. 

The  difference  between  the  thyroid  and  the  pituitary  might  be 
put  this  way:  that  while  the  thyroid  increases  energy  evolution 
and  so  makes  available  a  greater  supply  of  crude  energy,  by 
speeding  up  cellular  processes,  the  pituitary  assists  in  energy 
transformation,  in  energy  expenditure  and  conversion,  especially 
of  the  brain,  and  of  the  sexual  system.  In  short,  the  thyroid 
facilitates  energy  production,  the  pituitary  its  consumption.  The 
pituitary  appears  therefore  as  the  gland  of  continued  effort. 
Hence  fatigability,  an  inability  to  maintain  effort,  is  one  of  the 
prominent  complaints  when  there  is  destruction  or  an  insufficiency 
of  it  for  one  reason  or  another.  As  such,  it  contrasts  with  the 
glands  of  emergency  effort,  known  as  the  adrenals. 


CHAPTER    III 
THE  ADRENAL  GLANDS,  THE  GONADS,  AND  THYMUS 

Like  the  pituitary,  each  adrenal  gland  is  a  double  gland,  that 
is,  consists  of  two  distinct  portions,  united  together,  one  might 
say,  by  the  accident  of  birth.  It  would  be  confusing,  however, 
to  speak  of  each  as  two  glands,  because  there  are,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  two  separate  adrenal  glands,  one  in  the  right  side  of  the 
abdomen,  and  the  other  in  the  left.  Each  gland  is  composite,  or 
duplex.  How  the  two  parts  came  to  be  united  is  a  long  story, 
interesting  but  too  long  to  be  recounted  here.  In  fishes  they  are 
apart  and  independent. 

Each  adrenal  is  a  cocked  hat  shaped  affair,  astride  the  kidneys, 
easily  recognized  because  of  its  yellowish  fatty  color.  Indeed, 
for  centuries  the  glands  were  not  given  a  separate  status  as 
organs,  but  were  passed  up  as  part  of  the  fat  ensheathing  the 
kidney.  In  childhood  and  youth,  in  common  with  the  other 
glands,  they  are  relatively  larger  and  more  prominent  than  in 
the  adult.  Also,  at  every  age,  the  amount  of  blood  passing 
through  them  is  very  large  compared  to  their  size.  Their  tre- 
mendous importance  in  the  body  economy  accounts  for  their 
being  so  favored. 

The  two  parts  of  which  each  gland  is  composed,  are  known  as 
the  cortex  or  outer  portion  (literally  the  bark)  and  the  medulla 
or  inner  portion  (literally  the  core).  No  clean-cut  boundary 
sharply  delimits  the  two,  as  strands  and  peninsulas  of  tissue 
of  one  portion  penetrate  the  other.  In  the  history  of  their  devel- 
opment in  the  species  and  the  individual,  and  in  their  chemistry 
and  function,  a  sharp  difference  contrasts  them. 

In  the  embryo,  the  cortex  is  derived  from  the  same  patch  that 
gives  rise  to  the  sex  organs,  the  ovaries  in  the  female,  and  the 
testes  in  the  male,  described  as  the  germinal  epithelium.  How 
intimately  the  two  sets  of  glands  are  connected  is  neatly  pointed 
by  this  fact  of  a  common   ancestor.     All  vertebrates  possess 

69 


70        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

adrenal  glands.  In  the  lowest  of  the  vertebrates,  Petromyzon,  the 
two  parts  are  distinct,  the  cells  of.  the  cortex-to-be  are  situated  in 
the  walls  of  the  kidney  blood  vessels,  projecting  as  peninsulas  in 
the  blood  stream,  the  blood  sweeping  over  and  past  them.  The 
medulla-to-be  consists  of  cells  accompanying  the  vegetative 
nerves.  Among  reptiles,  the  two  become  adjacent  for  the  first 
time,  and  among  birds  one  part  occupies  the  meshes  of  the  other. 
The  size  of  the  cortex  varies  directly  with  the  sexuality  and  the 
pugnacity  of  the  animal.  The  charging  buffalo,  for  example, 
owns  a  strikingly  wide  adrenal  cortex.  The  fleeing  rabbit,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  conspicuous  for  a  narrow  strip  of  cortex  in  its 
adrenal.  Human  beings  possess  a  cortex  larger  than  that  of 
any  other  animal. 

No  definite  chemical  substance  has  as  yet  been  isolated  from 
the  cortex.  That  remains  a  problem  for  the  investigator  of 
the  future.  But  certain  observations,  especially  concerning  the 
relation  between  the  development  and  behaviour  of  the  so-called 
secondary  sex  characteristics,  those  qualities  of  skin,  hair  and 
fat  distribution,  physical  configuration  and  mental  attitudes, 
which  distinguish  the  sexes,  and  the  condition  of  the  gland, 
indicate  clearly  that  an  internal  secretion  will  be  isolated,  and 
that  it  will  in  its  activity  furnish  certain  predictable  features. 

Three  different  layers  of  cells,  arranged  in  strings,  that  inter- 
penetrate to  form  a  network  directly  bathed  by  blood,  that 
breaks  in  upon  them  from  open  blood  vessels,  compose  the 
cortex.  Most  remarkable  is  this  method  of  blood  supply  for  it  is 
exceedingly  common  among  the  invertebrates  and  rare  among 
the  vertebrates. 

In  certain  disturbances  of  these  glands,  especially  when  there 
are  tumors,  which  supply  a  massive  dose  of  the  secretion  to  the 
blood  presumably,  peculiar  sex  phenomena  and  general  develop- 
mental anomalies  and  irregularities  are  produced.  If  the  disease 
be  present  in  the  fetus,  taking  hold  before  birth,  and  so  brought 
into  the  world  with  the  child,  there  evolves  the  condition  of 
pseudo-hermaphroditism.  The  individual,  if  a  female,  presents 
to  a  greater  or  less  extent  the  external  habits  and  character  of 
the  other  sex.  So  that  she  is  actually  taken  for  a  man,  although 
the  primary  sex  organs  are  ovaries,  often  not  discovered  to  be 
such  except  when  examined  after  an  operation  or  death.  How 
closely  such  an  occurrence  touches  upon  the  problems  of  sex 
inversion  and  perversion  comes  at  once  to  mind. 

If  the  process  involving  the  adrenal  cortex  attacks  it  after 


THE  ADRENAL  GLANDS  71 

birth,  the  symmetrical  correspondence  and  harmony  of  the  pri- 
mary sex  organs  and  the  secondary  sex  characters  are  not  affected. 
But  there  follows  a  curious  hastening  of  the  ripening  of  body 
and  mind  summed  up  in  the  word  puberty,  a  precocious  puberty, 
with  the  most  startling  effects.  A  little  girl  of  2,  3,  or  4  years 
of  age  perhaps  will  come  to  exhibit  the  growth  and  appearance 
of  a  girl  of  14.  She  begins  to  menstruate,  her  breasts  swell,  she 
shoots  up  in  height  and  weight,  sprouts  the  hair  distribution  of 
the  adult  and  the  mentality  of  the  adolescent,  restless,  acquiring, 
doubting,  emerge.  A  tot  bewitched  into  puberty!  A  boy  of  six 
or  seven  may  suddenly,  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  or  months, 
become  a  little  man,  robust,  rather  short  and  stocky,  but  mous- 
tached,  with  the  muscular  strength  and  sexual  powers  of  a  man 
and  thinking  as  a  man.  It  is  all  as  if  into  some  fermentable 
medium  or  solution  a  little  yeast  were  dropped  that  changed 
the  quiet  calm  of  its  surface  into  a  bubbling,  effervescing  revolu- 
tion. It  suggests  at  once  that  maturation,  the  transformation 
of  the  child  into  the  man  or  woman,  must  be  due  to  the  pouring 
into  the  blood  and  the  body  fluids  of  some  substance  which  acts 
like  the  yeast  in  the  fermentable  solution.  The  adrenal  cortex  is 
one  source  of  the  maturity-producing  internal  secretions. 

If  trouble  in  the  adrenal  cortex  starts  after  puberty,  phenomena 
of  the  same  type,  but  of  a  different  order,  exhibit  themselves. 
A  woman,  say  in  the  thirties,  becomes  thus  afflicted.  Slowly  or 
quickly  her  body  will  be  covered  by  an  abundant  growth  of  hair, 
more  or  less  of  a  beard  and  moustache  appear  upon  the  face,  her 
voice  will  become  deep  and  penetrating,  her  muscles  will  harden, 
and  she  will  show  a  capacity  for  hard  physical  labor.  Sexually 
she  appears  to  be  made  over,  masculinity  now  predominates  in 
her  make-up.  Virilism  is  the  name  by  which  the  French  in 
particular  have  popularized  the  knowledge  of  the  condition. 
Virilists  have  to  shave  or  be  shaved  regularly  and  are  not  both- 
ered in  the  least  by  the  cares,  responsibilities,  jealousies  and 
anxieties  of  personal  beauty,  for  the  change  in  their  spirituality 
makes  them  immune  to  the  preoccupations  of  the  feminine.  The 
cause  of  such  a  transformation  in  a  previously  entirely  normal 
woman  has  been  found  to  be  a  tumor  of  the  adrenal  cortex. 

But  not  only  is  sexuality,  and  the  conduct  of  the  secondary 
sex  characters,  connected  with  the  adventures  of  the  adrenal 
cortex.  The  development  of  the  master  tissues  of  the  body,  the 
brain,  the  pride  and  darling  of  evolution,  is  in  some  subtle  way 
correlated  with  it.     The  adrenal  cortex  contains  more  of  the 


72        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

phosphorus-containing  substances  of  the  general  nature  of  those 
found  in  the  central  nervous  system  than  any  other  gland  or  non- 
nervous  tissues  in  the  body.  During  human  intrauterine  life  the 
adrenal  glands  are  large  and  conspicuous,  in  the  first  half  of  the 
second  month  being  twice  as  large  as  the  kidneys.  Most  of  this 
relatively  huge  size,  which  happens  in  the  human  alone,  a*id  not 
in  other  animals,  is  due  to  enlargement  of  the  cortex.  Should  this 
preponderance  of  the  cortex  over  the  medullary  portion  not  occur 
in  the  human,  that  is,  if  the  proportions  remain  like  those  of 
other  animals,  the  brain  fails  to  develop  properly,  or  an  entirely 
brainless  monster  is  generated.  The  human  brain,  therefore, 
probably  owes  its  superiority  over  the  animal  brain,  to  the  adre- 
nal cortex,  in  development  anyhow.  The  growth  of  the  brain 
cells,  their  number  and  complexity  is  thus  controlled  by  the 
adrenal  cortex. 

Besides  its  action  upon  the  sex  cells  and  the  brain  cells,  the 
internal  secretion  of  the  adrenal  cortex  acts  upon  the  pigment 
cells  of  the  skin,  blunting  their  sensitiveness  to  light.  In  degene- 
ration of  the  interior  of  the  gland,  which  destroys  the  medulla, 
but  not  the  cortex,  the  color  of  the  skin  is  left  unmodified.  If, 
however,  the  cortex  is  invaded,  as  happens  most  often  in  the 
classical  tuberculosis  of  the  adrenals  which  drew  the  attention  of 
the  Englishman  Addison  to  them,  then  a  darkening  of  the  skin, 
which  may  go  on  to  a  negroid  bronzing,  follows.  That  means  an 
increased  sensitiveness  of  the  pigment  cells  of  the  skin  to  light. 
Skin  color  control  may  therefore  be  looked  upon  as  an  adrenal 
cortex  function. 

So  much  is  known  about  the  adrenal  cortex.  Upon  the  medulla, 
the  interior  gland  of  the  gland,  there  has  been  lavished  an 
amount  of  attention  beside  which  the  cortex  is  to  be  classed  as  a 
neglected  wall-flower.  Nearly  everything  that  possibly  could  be 
determined  about  an  internal  secretion  has  in  its  case  been  settled 
or  plausibly  guessed  at.  The  cells  manufacturing  the  secretion, 
its  exact  chemistry  and  function,  its  action  upon  the  blood,  the 
liver  and  spleen,  the  heart  and  lungs,  the  brain  and  nervous  sys- 
tem, have  been  minutely  investigated,  studied  and  charted.  Its 
source  in  the  food,  its  fate  in  the  body,  its  place  in  the  history 
of  the  individual  and  the  species,  its  importance  as  a  weapon 
in  the  struggle  for  existence,  and  the  survival  of  the  fittest  have 
been  made  the  subject  of  an  astonishing  number  of  researches, 
considering  the  short  period  of  scarce  three  decades  that  inten- 
sive science  has  centered  its  barrage  upon  it. 


THE  ADRENAL  GLANDS  73 

In  the  first  place,  the  medulla  contains  numerous  nerve  cells, 
belonging  to  the  vegetative,  also  called  the  sympathetic  nervous 
system.  But  these  nerve  cells  are  merely  minor  notes  of  the 
symphony.  The  motif  is  settled  by  a  majority  of  large,  granular 
cells,  which  stain  a  distinctive  yellowish-brown  when  the  gland 
is  fixed  in  a  solution  of  bichromate  of  potash.  All  chromium 
salts,  in  fact,  stain  the  therefore  labelled  chromaffin  cells.  The 
characteristic  staining  power  appears  to  be  dependent  upon,  or 
correlated  with,  the  presence  of  the  internal  secretion  of  the 
medulla  of  the  adrenal,  adrenalin.  For  the  content  of  adrenalin, 
as  calculated  chemically,  and  the  depth  of  stain  as  seen  under 
the  microscope,  rise  and  fall  together.  Chromaffin  reaction  and 
adrenalin  content  go  together.  The  poisonous  skin  glands  of  the 
toad  have  been  found  to  give  a  marked  chromaffin  reaction,  and 
to  contain  a  large  amount  of  adrenalin.  Other  masses  of  cells 
in  the  human  body,  especially  along  the  course  of  the  sympathetic 
nervous  system,  have  been  shown  to  give  the  reaction  and  to 
contain  adrenalin. 

The  erratic  Brown-Sequard  pounded  and  hammered  away  for 
more  than  thirty  years  on  the  importance  to  life  of  the  adrenal 
glands,  since  death  occurred  so  quickly  after  their  removal.  But 
it  was  not  until  Schaefer,  the  Scotch  physiologist,  (who  has  done 
more  than  any  other  living  man  to  stimulate  study  of  the  internal 
secretions)  found  that  an  extract  of  them,  when  injected  into  a 
vein,  produced  a  remarkable  though  temporary  rise  of  the  blood 
pressure,  that  a  real  enthusiasm  for  its  investigation  was  gener- 
ated. As  the  upshot,  a  number  of  other  significant  properties 
besides  the  first  of  blood-pressure  raising,  have  been  put  down 
to  its  credit.  Chemical  tests  demonstrated  that  it  originated  in 
the  medulla.  The  exact  amount  of  it  present  in  the  medulla,  in 
the  blood  issuing  from  the  adrenals  and  in  the  circulation  in 
general  have  been  determined.  The  concentration  in  the  blood 
is  about  one  part  in  twenty  million,  while  there  is  about  a 
hundred  thousand  times  as  much  stored  in  the  gland  as  reserve. 
In  infections  and  intoxications,  after  muscular  exertion,  and 
with  profound  emotions,  there  is  a  decrease  of  it  in  the  gland  and 
an  increase  in  the  blood.  Pain  and  excitement,  especially  fear 
and  rage,  will  bring  about  its  discharge  from  the  gland.  With 
its  entry  into  the  blood,  there  is  a  tremendous  heightening  of  the 
tone,  a  tensing,  of  the  nervous  system.  The  nerve  cells  become 
more  sensitive  to  stimuli,  more  sugar  is  poured  into  the  blood 
from  the  liver,  more  red  blood  corpuscles  are  squeezed  into  the 


74        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

circulation  from  the  blood  lakes  of  the  liver  and  spleen.  There 
is  a  redistribution  of  the  whole  blood  mass,  a  good  deal  of  it 
being  withdrawn  from  the  internal  viscera,  and  hurried  to  the 
skeleton  muscles  and  the  brain.  The  heart  beats  more  strongly, 
the  eye  sees  more  clearly,  the  ear  hears  more  distinctly,  and  the 
breathing  is  more  rapid.  The  temperature  rises,  the  hair  of  the 
head  and  the  body  becomes  erect,  the  skin  gets  moist  and  greasy. 
It  will  help  a  fatigued  muscle  to  regain  its  normal  tone.  In 
short,  it  has  a  reinforcing  action  upon  the  nutritive  properties 
of  the  blood,  the  tone  of  the  muscles,  and  the  activity  of  the  brain 
and  the  vegetative  nerves. 

Chemists  set  themselves  the  task  of  discovering  just  what  was 
the  substance  possessed  of  such  extraordinary  and  hitherto  un- 
imagined  properties.  The  pure  adrenalin  was  isolated,  capable 
of  evoking  all  the  reactions  of  the  impure  adrenal  extract  mix- 
tures. The  final  triumph  was  the  preparation  of  it  artificially 
in  the  laboratory,  its  synthesis.  When  a  substance  can  be  synthe- 
sized in  the  chemist's  laboratory,  it  means  that  its  composition 
has  become  thoroughly  understood.  Here  at  last  was  an  example 
of  those  mysterious  internal  secretions,  the  existence  of  which  had 
indeed  been  postulated  and  proven,  but  which  had  never  actually 
been  inspected  by  the  eye  of  mortal  man.  To  have  it  in  a  test- 
tube,  indeed  to  possess  it  in  large  quantities  in  bottles,  to  be  able 
to  manipulate  and  examine  it  without  fear  of  the  co-action  of 
admixed  impurities,  to  see  it  with  the  eye,  and  to  taste  it  with 
the  tongue,  was  truly  a  marvel.  The  miracle  aroused  at  once 
scores  of  researches. 

The  Gland  of  Combat  and  Fight 

Considering  its  effects,  one  is  reminded  at  once  of  the  similarity 
to  the  expression  of  a  primitive  emotion  like  anger  or  fear.  So, 
by  turning  a  relation  upside  down,  it  was  argued  that  if  artificial 
adrenalin  could  produce  all  these  effects  of  an  emotion  like  fear, 
the  emotion  itself  should  produce  an  increase  of  the  natural  adre- 
nalin in  the  blood.  This  was  found  to  be  the  case.  Cannon  of 
Harvard  has  built  up  an  entire  theory  of  the  adrenal  as  the 
gland  of  emergencies  upon  the  basis  of  these  effects.  In  the 
facing  of  crises  the  adrenal  functions  as  the  gland  of  combat. 
And  indeed,  as  I  have  mentioned,  the  more  combative  and  pug- 
nacious an  animal,  the  more  adrenal  it  has,  while  the  timid  and 
meek  and  weak  have  less. 


THE  ADRENAL  GLANDS  75 

The  Glands  of  Combat,  the  glands  of  emergency  energy,  the 
glands    of   preparedness, — such    are   the    adrenal    glands   when 
viewed  from  the  adrenalin  standpoint.    A  picture  of  its  activity 
in  the  evolutionary  scheme  of  struggle  and  survival  is  something 
like  the  following:  meeting  an  enemy,  the  animal  is  put  in  danger. 
It  must  fight  or  flee  for  its  life.    In  either  case,  certain  conditions 
must  be  fulfilled,  if  the  body  of  the  animal  endangered  is  to  be 
saved.    To  prevent  injury  to  itself,  and  to  do  as  much  injury  as 
possible  to  the  foe — that  becomes  its  immediate  urge  and  neces- 
sity.   Of  the  two  animals,  if  in  one  the  heart  should  begin  to 
beat  more  strongly,  the  blood  pressure  to  rise,  the  blood  to  flow 
more  rapidly  through  the  attacking  instruments,  the  muscles, 
the  teeth  and  claws,  the  brain  and  its  eyes,  while  the  other  animal 
experiences  none  of  these,  the  former  will  be  the  victor  in  fight 
or  flight.    Adrenalin  may  be  looked  upon  as  the  invention  for  the 
mobilization  at  a  moment's  notice,  or  as  we  say,  after  generations 
of  use,  by  instinct,  of  all  these  visceral  and  blood  advantages 
in  the  struggle  of  combat  or  flight. 

The  nature  of  instinct,  in  its  relation  to  the  glands  of  internal 
secretion,  is  a  problem  for  another  chapter.  But  we  may  note 
that  the  James-Lange  theory  of  an  emotion  regards  it  as  a 
consciousness  of  the  very  changes  in  the  organism  adrenalin 
causes.  Since  adrenalin  is  the  starter  of  the  whole  process,  and 
since  McDougal  has  defined  emotion  as  the  feeling  aspect  of  an 
instinct,  just  as  an  instinct  may  be  defined  as  the  motor  aspect 
of  an  emotion,  the  adrenals  as  emotion-genetic,  and  instinct- gene- 
tic, play  a  part  in  the  most  profound  processes  of  the  subcon- 
scious and  unconscious. 

The  Mechanism  of  Fear 

We  may  therefore  visualize  a  mechanism  of  fear.  An  instant 
excess  of  adrenalin  occurs  in  the  blood  of,  say,  a  cat  when  it  is 
alarmed  by  the  sight  of  a  dog.  In  that  cat,  at  the  image  of  its 
hereditary  enemy,  certain  brain  cells  vibrate.  A  nerve  tract,  in 
use  as  the  line  for  that  particular  message  in  a  hundred  thousand 
generations  of  cats,  whirrs  its  yell  to  the  medulla  of  the  adrenal 
gland.  Through  the  tiny,  solitary  veins  of  the  glands,  an  in- 
finitesimal quantity  of  the  reserve  adrenalin  responds.  And  with 
what  an  effect!  The  blood,  that  primary  medium  of  life,  the 
precious  fluid  that  is  everything,  must  all,  or  nearly  all,  be  sent 
to  the  firing  line,  the  battle  trenches,  the  brain  and  muscles,  now 


76        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

or  never.  So  the  blood  is  drafted  from  the  non-essential  indus- 
tries— from  the  skin  where  it  serves  normally  to  regulate  the  heat 
of  the  body — from  the  digestive  organs,  the  stomach  and  intes- 
tine, which  must  forsooth  stop  now,  since  if  the  organism  will 
die,  their  last  effort  of  digestion  has  been  done — from  the  liver 
and  spleen,  great  chemical  factories  in  normal  times,  but  now 
of  no  moment.  Besides,  should  they  be  wounded,  it  is  better 
they  should  be  bloodless,  and  so  run  the  least  chance  of  bleeding 
to  death,  or  getting  infected,  for  the  more  tissue  there  is  around, 
the  greater  the  danger  of  infection.  So,  like  the  skin,  the  liver 
which  usually  holds  in  its  great  lakes  and  vessels  about  a  quarter 
of  all  the  blood  in  the  body,  is  almost  drained  and  blanched. 
At  the  same  time,  its  great  storehouses  of  sugar  open  their 
sluices  and  pour  into  the  blood,  increasing  its  sugar  content  by 
about  a  third  because  the  combustion  of  sugar  is  the  easiest  way 
of  getting  energy  free  in  the  cells,  sugar  being  the  most  quickly 
burned  up  of  all  the  foods,  and  so  the  great  food  of  the  muscles 
and  the  heart.  The  poisons  of  fatigue,  acid  products  of  the  con- 
traction of  muscles,  are  antagonized  and  neutralized  by  sub- 
stances formed  in  the  course  of  the  oxidation  of  the  sugar.  Adre- 
nalin, too,  is  directly  fatigue  antagonist.  It  causes  the  blood  to 
clot  faster  than  under  ordinary  circumstances.  It  erects  the  hair 
of  the  animal,  and  dilates  the  pupils  of  the  eyes.  There  is  an 
increase  of  the  apparent  size,  all  of  which  are  to  intimidate  the 
enemy,  like  an  Indian's  painting  of  his  face  blue  and  green.  It 
also — but  what  else  does  it  not  do? 

The  story  of  adrenalin  would  have  delighted  the  heart  of 
Samuel  Butler.  His  "Note  Books,"  opulent  as  they  are,  would 
have  been  the  richer  in  pages  and  pages  with  his  comments  on  it. 
Contending  as  he  did  with  the  pompous,  dogmatic  mechanism 
worship  of  the  new  scientific  clique  of  his  time  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  superstitions  of  the  old  theological  caste  on  the  other, 
he  had  to  fight  the  hardest  kind  of  guerrilla  warfare  in  defense 
of  the  Purpose  of  Life.  Adrenalin,  that  weapon  of  a  gland 
tracing  its  ancestry  back  to  the  begetter  of  the  brain  itself,  for 
brain  and  adrenal  gland  both  have  evolved  from  the  small  nerve 
ganglia  of  the  invertebrates,  would  have  backed  up  to  the  hilt 
his  argument,  which  he  had  to  elaborate  on  the  indirect  grounds 
of  analogy  and  induction.  Essential  for  defense,  and  for  protec- 
tion,— an  organ  in  which  everything  necessary  for  the  stratagems 
of  retreat,  or  the  offensives  of  attack,  are  supplied  ad  libitum, 


THE  ADRENAL  GLANDS  77 

while  everything  non-essential  or  detrimental  to  the  matter  of 
the  moment  is  inhibited,  arrested  and  suppressed — no  more  per- 
fect sample  of  the  design  with  which  Life  is  drenched  could  be 
imagined  by  the  most  closeted  of  passionate  idealists. 

Failure  of  the  Adrenals 

As  the  gland  of  acute  stress  and  strain,  the  adrenals  in  modern 
life  are  called  upon  to  function  more  heavily  and  frequently  than 
in  the  past.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  life  of  the  beast  of  jungle 
and  field,  as  well  as  of  savage  and  barbarian,  is  just  as  full  of 
emergencies  and  shocks  as  that  of  the  average  city  man  or 
woman.  In  the  case  of  the  latter,  however,  inhibitions,  education, 
and  the  conditions  of  modern  living,  improper  food,  sedentary 
indoor  confinement,  and  universal  rack  and  noise,  have  undoubt- 
edly made  greater  and  greater  demands  upon  the  adrenal  glands. 
Chemical  quantitative  studies  have  shown  that  by  repeated 
stimulation,  the  adrenal  glands  may  be  exhausted  of  their  reserve 
supply  of  secretion,  which  returns  only  insufficiently  if  not  enough 
time  is  given  for  recuperation.  There  results  a  condition  of 
temporary  or  chronic  adrenal  insufficiency,  supposedly  an  insuf- 
ficient functioning  of  the  gland  as  a  whole.  In  persons  so  afflicted 
there  appears  a  fatigability,  a  sensitiveness  to  cold,  cold  hands 
and  feet,  which  are  sometimes  mottled  bluish-red,  a  loss  of  ap- 
petite and  zest  in  life,  and  a  mental  instability  characterized  by 
an  indecision,  and  a  tendency  to  worry,  a  weepishness  upon  the 
slightest  provocation. 

A  certain  number  of  the  temporary  breakdowns  or  nervous 
prostrations,  which  seem  to  be  growing  more  common  or  fashion- 
able, may  be  sometimes  traced  to  such  a  deficiency  of  normal 
response  to  the  needs  of  everyday  conflict  by  the  adrenal  gland. 
In  some,  mental  and  physical  elasticity  are  totally  lost,  and 
even  the  slightest  exertion  in  either  field  often  causes  so  much 
weariness  and  exhaustion  as  to  be  prohibited.  Depression  and 
even  melancholia  are  associated  with  the  fear  of  not  being  able 
to  accomplish  good  work  hitherto  easy  and  enjoyed.  Sometimes 
they  are  obsessed  with  the  thought  that  they  have  lost  their  nerve 
completely,  and  so  dread  to  commit  themselves  in  even  the  most 
trivial  of  situations.  The  vacillating  frame  of  mind  is  so  distress- 
ing at  times  as  to  arouse  thoughts  of  suicide.  When  these 
symptoms  concur  in  the  type  of  personality  whom  I  shall  describe 


78        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

as  the  unstable  adrenal-centered  individual,  there  is  evidence  for 
explaining  the  process  as  the  effect  of  an  insufficiency  of  secretion 
by  the  adrenal  gland. 

Shock,  collapse,  heart  failure  and  sudden  death  following  ab- 
normal emotion,  like  an  attack  of  rage,  or  the  terrors  of  a  railroad 
accident,  or  bad  news,  or  excessive  exertion  like  running  a  long 
race  or  climbing  a  high  mountain  when  in  poor  general  health, 
as  the  phrase  goes,  or  in  the  terminal  stages  of  infections  like 
epidemic  influenza  or  Asiatic  cholera,  have  been  put  down  to  an 
acute  insufficiency  of  the  adrenal  gland.  A  lowered  temperature, 
blood  pressure,  and  blood  vessel  tone,  exhibited  in  tests  of  the 
response  of  the  skin  to  stroking,  are  present  in  all  of  these  and 
point  the  same  moral. 

In  the  second  half  of  the  19th  century,  an  American  physician, 
Beard,  described  Neurasthenia,  a  general  disturbance  of  the  body 
and  mind,  not  properly  classifiable  as  a  disease,  but  serious 
enough  to  incapacitate  or  at  least  greatly  limit  the  sufferer.  The 
neurasthenic  is  to  be  recognized  by  the  fact  that  the  most  pains- 
taking objective  examination  of  his  organs  reveals  nothing  the 
matter  with  them.  Yet,  according  to  his  complaint,  everything 
is  the  matter  with  him.  He  cannot  sleep  when  he  lies  down,  he 
cannot  keep  awake  when  he  stands  up.  He  cannot  concentrate, 
but  still  he  is  pitifully  worried  about  his  life.  The  slightest  irri- 
tant causes  him  to  go  off  the  handle.  As  he  works  himself  up  into 
his  hysterical  state  as  a  reaction  to  a  disagreeable  person  or  prob- 
lem, irregular  blotches  may  appear  on  his  face  and  neck.  Gen- 
erally, his  hands  and  feet  are  clammy  and  perspiring,  his  face  is 
abnormally  flushed  or  pallid,  the  eyes  are  worried  or  starey,  un- 
wonted wandering  sensations  involving  now  this  area  of  the  body, 
or  now  that  obsess  him.  As  the  blood  pressure  is  too  low  for 
the  age,  the  circulation  is  nearly  always  inadequate  and  palpita- 
tion of  the  heart  is  a  frequent  complaint.  So  frequent,  that 
attention  is  often  centered  upon  the  heart,  a  diagnosis  of  heart 
disease  is  made,  and  the  unfortunate  is  doomed  for  life — to  brood 
over  horrible  possibilities.  The  brooding  over  themselves  and 
their  troubles  is  one  of  the  distinctive  features  of  the  whole  com- 
plex. Neurasthenia  may  masquerade  as  any  organic  disease.  An 
individual  with  a  soil  for  a  neurasthenic  reaction  to  life  will 
become  neurasthenic  when  confronted  by  any  stone  wall,  includ- 
ing a  serious  ailment  within  himself. 

Beard's  Neurasthenia  leaped  at  once  into  the  limelight.  It 
was  seized  upon  and  applauded  in  Europe  as  a  good  new  name 


THE  ADRENAL  GLANDS  79 

for  an  old  condition,  observed  particularly  in  Americans  abroad 
to  rest  from  the  fatigues  of  the  get-rich-quick  games  of  industrial 
speculators.  In  fact,  the  name  of  the  American  Disease  was  given 
to  it.  Various  theories  about  the  effects  of  climate,  sunlight  per 
square  inch  and  unit  of  time,  oxygen  content  of  the  air,  and  so 
on,  were  offered  up  upon  the  altar  of  scientific  explanation.  Sir 
Arbuthnot  Lane,  famous  protagonist  of  Lane's  intestinal  kink, 
said  that  all  Americans  were  neurasthenic.  Neurasthenia  became 
one  of  the  most  popular  of  diagnoses,  and  remains  so  today. 

Neurasthenia,  regarded  as  a  reaction  of  people  to  the  stress 
and  strain  of  life,  has  without  a  doubt  increased.  The  most 
casual  of  observers  will  tell  you  that  the  generation  of  the  Great 
War  is  a  neurasthenic  generation.  It  takes  its  pleasures  too 
intensely,  its  pains  too  seriously,  its  troubles  too  flippantly.  But 
what  is  neurasthenia?  Beard  himself  regarded  it  as  a  chronic 
fatigue  and  loss  of  tone  of  the  nervous  system,  a  literal  interpreta- 
tion of  his  term.  That  the  conception,  as  far  as  it  goes,  is  valid 
is  proved  by  the  fact  that  it  is  the  neurasthenics  who  furnish 
the  majority  of  the  clientele  of  the  cults,  the  Christian  Scientists, 
the  osteopaths  and  the  chiropractors,  and  who  are  the  subjects 
of  the  faith  and  miracle  cures,  like  those  of  Lourdes.  That  is 
because  their  particular  disease,  or  what  appears  to  them  to  be 
their  very  own  disease — and  they  certainly  cherish  their  ail- 
ments— is  but  an  expression  of,  a  compensation  for,  indeed  a 
consolation  for,  the  underlying  feelings  of  insufficiency  or  infe- 
riority. Were  there  no  moral  code,  were  there  no  social  system, 
nor  the  consequent  inculcated  conscience  to  be  responsible  to, 
there  would  be  no  such  disguising  symptom  as  the  disease  which 
preoccupies  the  consciousness.  The  feeling  of  insufficiency  would 
be  there,  and  would  be  recognized  as  in  itself  the  disease.  To  the 
physiologist  and  the  psychologist,  the  feeling  of  insufficiency  is 
the  disease,  no  matter  how  spectacular  the  overlaying  phenomena 
— a  cripple  on  crutches  or  a  man  blind  and  speechless.  Shell 
shock  is  now  acknowledged  to  belong  to  this  group. 

Now  one  of  the  outstanding  effects  of  disease  of  the  adrenal 
glands  is  the  feelings  of  muscular  and  mental  inefficiency.  And 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  a  good  number  of  observations  conspire  for 
the  idea  that  a  certain  number  of  neurasthenics  are  suffering 
from  insufficiency  of  the  adrenal  gland.  The  chronic  state  of  the 
acute  phenomenon,  known  as  the  nervous  breakdown,  really  rep- 
resents in  them  a  breakdown  of  the  reserves  of  the  adrenals, 
and  an  elimination  of  their  factor  of  safety.    In  the  light  of  that 


80        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

conception,  the  great  American  disease — dementia  americana — 
is  seen  to  be  adrenal  disease — and  the  American  life  to  be  the 
adrenal  life,  often  making  too  great  demands  upon  that  life,  and 
so  breaking  down  with  it. 

Adrenal  Excess 

The  converse  of  adrenal  insufficiency,  that  of  adrenal  excess, 
also  exists.  In  certain  types  of  the  middle-aged,  a  high  blood 
pressure,  accompanied  by  a  great  capacity  for  work,  has  been 
shown  to  be  associated  with  hypertrophy  of  the  cortex.  In  women, 
there  is  a  degree  of  masculinity,  as  the  adrenal  in  women  makes 
for  masculinity,  neutralising  more  or  less  the  specifically  femi- 
nine influences  of  the  internal  secretions  of  the  ovary.  Such 
women  possess  a  vigor  and  energy  above  the  normal,  and  com- 
mand responsible  positions  in  society,  not  only  among  their  own 
sex,  but  also  among  men.  They  are  the  ones  who,  in  the  present 
overturn  of  the  traditional  sex  relationships,  will  become  the 
professional  politicians,  bankers,  captains  of  industry,  and  di- 
rectors of  affairs  in  general. 

The  Gonads 

(Sexual,  Puberty  or  Interstitial  Glands) 

The  gonads  is  the  name  applied  to  the  generative  or  repro- 
ductive glands  considered  collectively.  In  the  male,  they  are  the 
testes;  in  the  female,  the  ovaries.  They  are,  therefore,  sometimes 
called  the  sexual  glands.  As  they  possess  definite  canals  for  the 
removal  of  their  gross  secretion,  the  specific  reproductive  cells, 
ova  or  spermatozoa,  to  a  surface  of  the  body,  they  are  first  of  all 
glands  of  external  secretion.  But  they  have  been  also  found  to 
hold  secretory  cells  not  concerned  with  the  making  of  the  repro- 
ductive corpuscles,  but,  as  all  the  evidence  indicates,  with  the 
manufacture  of  an  internal  secretion.  These  interstitial  cells  form 
the  interstitial  gland.  A  classic  example  of  a  gland  of  internal 
secretion  lodged  in  the  interstices  of  a  gland  of  external  secretion 
is  thus  furnished  by  the  gonads. 

Origin  of  Sex  Traits 

The  history  of  sex  goes  back  far  in  the  scheme  of  life.  The 
immortality  of  the  ameba  was  at  one  time  one  of  the  indisput- 


THE  ADRENAL  GLANDS  81 

ables  of  biology.  Then  some  observations  were  made  which 
threw  doubt  upon  a  long  accepted  fact,  now  declared  a  dogma. 
Lately,  opinion  has  veered  back  to  immortality.  But  in  the  case 
of  a  close  relative  of  the  ameba,  the  one-celled  animal  known  as 
the  Paramecium,  union  with  another  Paramecium,  true  conjuga- 
tion, has  been  proved  necessary  to  prevent  death  sooner  or  later. 
Sex  here  appears  in  its  most  primitive  form,  on  the  basis  of  ex- 
change of  necessary  materials,  between  individuals  to  prevent 
death,  their  own  having  been,  so  to  speak,  worn  out,  in  the  course 
of  metabolism. 

Specifically  different  sexes  come  later,  when  mortality  is  a  uni- 
versal fate,  as  a  means  of  rebirth  and  escape  from  death.  Then 
the  sexes  develop  their  latest  function,  most  prominent  among 
the  younger  vertebrates,  of  acting  as  nature's  most  potent  method 
of  variation  and  differentiation.  In  the  pursuit  of  the  different, 
nature  has  exalted  sex,  and  the  intensity  of  the  sex  life.  As  far 
as  the  preservation  of  a  species  is  concerned,  and  the  reproduc- 
tion of  the  individual,  the  asexual  methods,  budding,  for  example, 
would  have  done  well  enough.  But  when  it  comes  to  enacting 
a  different  individual  apart  from  the  effects  of  environment,  sex 
stands  out  as  the  favored  method  of  Life. 

The  development  of  the  sexes  and  the  sexual  life  brought  a  new 
element  of  conflict  into  the  living  world.  Before  the  advent  of 
the  sexes  the  conflict  was  essentially  for  the  means  of  existence, 
food  alone.  But  with  the  sexual  life  came  a  conflict  for  sex 
pleasure,  a  competition  among  members  of  the  same  species  for 
the  same  individual  as  their  sex  partners.  The  result  was  the 
introduction  of  a  factor  in  evolution  which  Darwin  examined  so 
closely  in  the  "Descent  of  Man." 

The  sex  conflict  has  been  the  cause  for  the  origin  and  the 
survival  of  certain  physical  and  mental  traits,  helpful  in  sex 
attraction,  sex  combat,  the  growth  of  the  embryo,  and  the  nutri- 
tion and  safety  of  the  young  of  a  species, — in  short,  the  whole 
process  of  sexual  selection.  The  proportions  of  the  skeleton,  the 
distribution  of  hair  and  fat,  the  construction  of  organs  of  attack 
and  defense,  the  color  of  the  skin,  the  cyclic  processes  of  prepara- 
tion for  impregnation,  the  oestrus  or  heat  period  in  animals,  the 
menstrual  period  in  the  human  being,  the  psychic  reactions  to 
danger  and  combat  have  all  been  thus  determined.  That  man  is 
bearded  while  woman  is  not, — that  woman  has  potentially  func- 
tional breasts  while  man  has  not, — the  aggressive  pugnacity  of 
man  contrasted  with  the  more  passive  timidity  of  woman,  have 


82        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

all  been  evolved  in  the  sex  struggle,  surviving  because  most  effec- 
tive in  that  struggle.  These  so-called  secondary  sexual  character- 
istics are  an  expression  of  the  influence  of  the  internal  secretion 
of  the  gonads,  or  the  interstitial  glands.  Some  call  them  puberty 
glands,  because  their  ripening  initiates  puberty. 

We  know  that  these  interstitial  glands,  to  stick  to  that  name, 
(rather  than  to  the  name  of  the  puberty  glands,  since  they  serve 
not  only  to  induce  puberty  but  to  maintain  maturity)  are  the 
actual  primary  dictators  of  the  process  by  which  male  and  female 
are  distinguished,  if  not  created.  Castration  was  probably  the 
first  surgical  operation  carried  out  for  experimental  purposes, 
suggested  no  doubt  by  a  curiosity  concerning  its  effects.  Trepan- 
ning of  the  skull,  the  geologic  record  indicates,  was  done  even  by 
the  cave  man.  But  as  an  experimental  operation,  castration 
seems  to  hold  the  primary  position  in  the  annals  of  surgery. 

Its  effects  noted,  the  satisfaction  of  one  of  the  lower  human 
instincts,  jealousy,  popularised  it.  From  the  days  of  Semiramis, 
eunuchs  have  been  commonplace  figures  of  the  East,  their  func- 
tion definite:  to  guard  the  harems  of  the  powerful.  The  age  of 
Abdul  Hamid  witnessed  no  diminution  of  the  barbaric  tortures 
by  which  children  are  prepared  for  the  profession.  It  is  to  the 
credit  of  England  that  in  its  dominions  in  the  Orient  the  practice 
has  been  abolished.  But  it  goes  on  even  today.  According  to 
the  best  authorities,  four  out  of  five  of  these  victims  at  the 
auto-da-fe  of  a  vicious  human  instinct  die  immediately  or  soon 
after  from  exhaustion  due  to  pain  and  infection.  Not  all  of  the 
ancient  nations  countenanced  the  brutal  horror.  The  Hebrews 
placarded  castration  an  unpardonable  sin,  making  it  a  sin  to  cas- 
trate even  animals.  Nor  was  any  man  so  mutilated  permitted 
id  worship  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  (Deuteronomy  xxiii,  11). 
Yet  we  have  evidence  that  the  latter  Jewish  kings  employed 
foreign  eunuchs  in  their  harems,  who  often  held  the  most  im- 
portant positions  as  ministers  of  the  court. 

Besides  the  eunuchs,  another  group  of  people  have  presented 
material  for  the  study  of  the  interstitial  glands.  These  are  the 
Skoptzi  of  Russia  and  the  Lipowaner  of  Roumania.  Among  them 
castration  is  a  religious  ritual.  Mankind  has  always  been  most 
brutal  to  itself  in  the  name  of  the  ideal.  These  sects  were  founded 
because  in  the  eighteenth  century  an  antipode  of  Joseph  Smith 
and  Brigham  Young  discovered  this  passage  in  Matthew  xix,  12. 

"For  there  are  some  eunuchs  which  were  so  born  from  their 
mother's  womb,  and  there  are  some  eunuchs  which  were  made 


THE  ADRENAL  GLANDS  83 

eunuchs  of  men:  and  there  be  eunuchs  which  have  made  them- 
selves eunuchs  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven's  sake.  He  that  is 
able  to  receive  it,  let  him  receive  it." 

He  decided  that  he  was  inspired  to  spread  the  gospel  of  cas- 
tration. A  sect  was  founded  who  thought  that  surgery  was  the 
easiest  way  to  enter  the  gates  of  Paradise,  and  they  multiplied 
and  fructified.  The  sect  exists  today,  and  some  of  the  most  inter- 
esting studies  of  the  internal  secretion  of  the  interstitial  glands 
have  been  made  among  them. 

Related  to  acquired  eunuchism  is  the  condition  of  eunuchoid- 
ism, the  eunuchs  which  were  so  born  from  their  mother's  womb. 
Baron  Larey,  the  great  surgeon  of  Napoleon's  armies,  was  their 
first  painter.  He  was  the  only  altruist  Bonaparte  said  he  had 
ever  met  in  his  life.  He  portrayed  a  group  of  soldiers  with  pecu- 
liarly high-pitched  voices,  smooth  and  hairless  skins,  and 
atrophied  generative  organs.  A  somewhat  similar  picture  is 
evolved  in  certain  types  of  insufficiency  of  the  pituitary  gland. 
Features  of  the  picture  are  exhibited  with  disturbances  of  the 
other  internal  secretory  glands  also,  like  the  thymus. 

But  a  host  of  experiments  and  data  prove  the  interstitial  glands 
to  be  the  direct  controllers  of  elementary  sexuality  and  the 
specific  sex  traits  of  male  and  female.  Beginning  with  Berthold 
back  in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  who  studied  the 
fowl,  a  number  of  observations  have  been  made  on  the  effects  of 
excision,  translocation  and  transplantation  of  these  glands. 

The  results  of  the  experiments  and  observations  can  be  summed 
up  as  follows:  if  the  male  individual  is  castrated  before  puberty, 
that  is,  before  the  advent  of  the  sexual  life,  secondary  sex  qualities 
do  not  develop.  In  males,  the  generative  organs  do  not  grow, 
hair  on  the  face  does  not  appear,  hair  elsewhere  on  the  body  re- 
mains generally  scanty,  the  voice  continues  as  high-pitched  as  the 
child's,  there  is  more  or  less  muscle  weakness,  obesity,  and  mental 
sluggishness.  In  other  words,  we  have  an  effeminate  man,  tech- 
nically a  eunuch.  In  the  castrated  female,  the  pelvis  does  not 
grow  to  the  normal  feminine  size,  the  breasts  do  not  swell  as  they 
should,  more  or  less  hair  comes  out  on  the  face,  the  voice  is  low- 
pitched,  and  tends  to  be  rather  husky,  the  legs  are  longer,  and 
again,  the  mentality  is  dulled.  That  is,  a  masculine  sort  of 
woman  is  produced. 

In  short,  the  castrated  male  takes  on  a  feminine  type,  and  the 
castrated  female,  a  male  type.  In  either  case  there  is  also  an 
infantilism,  a  retention  of  the  infantile  mental  traits,  a  lack  of 


84        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

development  of  the  adult  mental  attitudes  and  reactions.  Now, 
if  in  the  castrated  male  is  transplanted  an  ovary,  the  positive 
characteristics  of  the  female  are  evoked,  such  as  enlarged  mam- 
mary glands,  and  a  tendency  to  secretion  of  milk.  Experiments 
have  also  been  reported  in  which  a  uterus  was  also  placed  in  such 
an  animal,  with  a  means  of  entry,  and  pregnancy  followed.  If  in 
the  castrated  female  a  testicle  is  planted,  the  masculine  traits 
become  much  more  marked  and  striking.  A  direct  exchange  of 
the  male  and  female  roles  can  thus  be  achieved.  Castration  after 
puberty  cannot  modify  profoundly  structures  like  the  skeleton 
which  are  already  completed.  Yet  it  may  unquestionably  bring 
about  definite  retrogressive  changes  in  the  secondary  sex  charac- 
ters: reduction  or  loss  of  virility,  diminution  of  facial  and  body 
hair,  and  a  general  presenility  or  hastening  of  senility. 

How  remarkably  these  interstitial  cells  influence  the  entire 
structure  and  vitality  of  the  organism  is  indicated  by  these  facts. 
How  much  they  have  to  do  with  sexual  impulses,  sexual  excite- 
ment, and  sexual  desire,  what  the  Freudians  have  popularized  as 
the  libido,  and  how  subtly  they  act  upon  the  coming  and  duration 
of  adolescence  and  maturity,  as  well  as  sexual  precocity  and  pe- 
versions,  we  shall  consider  in  a  later  chapter.  But  it  is  enough 
now  to  remember  that  these  interstitial  glands  are  the  primary 
dictators  of  the  genital  sense  and  flair  of  the  individual.  In  any 
attempt  at  measurement  of  men  and  women,  the  quality  and 
quantity  of  the  internal  secretion  of  the  interstitial  cells  must  be 
respected  as  a  fundamental  consideration.  The  womanly  woman 
and  the  manly  man,  those  ideals  of  the  Victorians,  which  crum- 
bled before  the  attack  of  the  Ibsenites,  Strindbergians  and  Sha- 
vians in  the  nineties,  but  which  must  be  recognized  as  quite  valid 
biologically,  are  the  masterpieces  of  these  interstitial  cells  when 
in  their  perfection.  They  are  such  solely  because  of  the  right 
concentration  in  the  blood  of  the  substances  manufactured  not 
only  by  these  cells,  but  by  all  the  glands  of  internal  secretion. 
For  it  cannot  be  repeated  and  emphasized  too  often  that  the 
interstitial  cells  of  the  sex  glands  are  most  sensitive  to  all  kinds 
of  other  influences,  and,  in  particular,  the  other  internal  secre- 
tory organs.  They  may  indeed  be  watched  as  an  index  scale  or 
barometer  of  the  general  tone  of  the  whole  internal  secretion  sys- 
tem. Sex  variations  offer  a  variety  of  clues  to  variations,  dis- 
turbances, predominances  and  abnormalities  in  all  the  compo- 
nents of  the  ductless  gland  association. 

To  take  a  single  instance,  the  development  of  the  long  bones 


THE  ADRENAL  GLANDS  85 

is  dependent  upon  the  handling  of  food  lime  by  the  body.  Eunuchs 
and  eunuchoids,  that  is,  individuals  with  insufficient  internal 
secretion  of  the  interstitial  cells,  have  longer  bones  and  more 
fragile  bones  than  the  normal.  Vice  versa,  those  with  an  excess 
of  the  secretion  have  shorter  and  thicker  bones.  The  earlier  the 
onset  of  menstruation,  which  means  puberty,  the  shorter  the 
extremities,  as  the  action  of  the  internal  secretion  of  the  ovaries 
closes  the  story  of  the  growth  of  the  long  bones. 

The  ovaries  are  a  most  important  factor  in  the  regulation  of 
the  power  of  the  organism  to  keep  lime  in  the  bones.  If  they  over- 
secrete  in  an  excess  which  cannot  be  taken  care  of  by  the  other 
glands  of  internal  secretion,  the  body  loses  lime,  a  softening  and 
curving  of  the  bones  occurs,  and  the  most  horrible  deformities 
and  tortures  for  the  sufferer.  Taking  out  the  ovaries  has  cured 
some  of  the  afflicted.  Administration  of  the  antagonizing  gland 
extracts  has  helped  others.  An  Italian,  Bossi,  in  1907,  used 
adrenal  gland  curatively.  More  recently,  a  British  student  of 
the  subject,  Blair  Bell,  was  given  the  direction  of  the  treatment,  at 
long  range,  of  a  number  of  cases  in  India,  the  land  of  chronic 
pregnancy  with  insufficient  food,  and  consequent  oversecretion  of 
the  ovaries,  with  the  typical  softening  of  the  bones.  At  his  sug- 
gestion pituitary  was  used  successfully. 

Some  of  the  glands  of  internal  secretion  act  as  accelerators  to 
the  sex  glands.  Others  act  as  retarding  antagonists.  Among  the 
most  important  of  the  latter  is 

The  Thymus 

The  thymus  is  the  gland  which  dominates  childhood.  It  ap- 
pears to  do  so  by  inhibiting  the  activity  of  the  testes  or  ovaries. 
Castration  causes  a  persistent  growth  and  retarded  atrophy  of 
the  thymus.  Removal  of  the  thymus  hastens  the  development 
of  the  gonads. 

Situated  in  the  chest,  astride  the  windpipe,  it  descends  and 
covers  over  the  upper  portion  of  the  heart,  overlapping  the  great 
vessels  at  the  base  of  the  heart.  It  is  a  brownish  red  mass,  which 
when  cut  presents  the  spongy  effect  of  a  sweetbread.  The  more 
intimate  view  of  detail  revealed  by  the  higher  powers  of  the 
microscope  shows  conglomerations  of  the  white  cells  of  the  blood 
known  as  lymphocytes.  But  scattered  through  the  substance  of 
the  gland,  between  these  lymphocytes,  like  the  interstitial  cells 
of  the  sex  glands  placed  between  the  sex  cells,  are  peculiarly 


86        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

staining  cells  in  whorls.  Of  which  there  are  many  more  in  the 
thymus  of  embryonic  and  early  postnatal  life,  known  after  their 
discoverer  as  Hassal's  Corpuscles.  They  are  believed  by  some  to 
elaborate  the  specific  internal  secretion  of  the  thymus.  Present 
in  all  vertebrates,  there  seems  to  be  more  of  it  in  the  carnivora 
than  in  the  herbivora,  like  the  thyroid. 

Concerning  the  exact  function  of  the  thymus,  we  are  a  good 
deal  at  sea.  The  latest  opinion  about  the  results  of  extirpation 
even  in  young  and  growing  animals  is  that  they  are  nil.  Yet  there 
is  a  certain  justification  for  proclaiming  the  thymus  the  gland 
of  childhood,  the  gland  which  keeps  children  childish  and  some- 
times makes  children  out  of  grown-ups.  There  is  a  quantity  of 
data  for  that  proposition.  In  the  first  place,  the  curve  of  rise  of 
growth  of  the  gland  seems  to  coincide  with  the  period  of  child- 
hood, the  curve  of  its  decline  with  the  period  of  adolescence  and 
the  rise  of  the  sex  glands.  In  the  past,  it  was  accepted,  that 
with  puberty  the  thymus  atrophied  and  was  replaced  by  some 
sort  of  fatty  tissue.  Nowadays,  it  is  held  that  secretion  cells 
persist  throughout  life.  When  the  extent  of  this  persistence  is  too 
great,  the  gland  being  from  five  to  ten  times  as  large  as  the 
normal,  a  number  of  other  features  become  prominent  to  make 
the  extraordinary  individual,  the  status  lymphaticus,  who  amid 
the  hazards  of  life  will  react  in  an  extraordinary  way.  He  will 
be  taken  up  in  the  consideration  of  internal  secretion  person- 
alities. 

Then  there  are  the  varied  and  remarkable  phenomena  of 
thymus  enlargement  and  hyperactivity  in  childhood  itself.  When 
an  enlarged  thymus  is  present  in  an  infant,  the  initiation  of 
breathing  in  the  new-born,  the  introduction  of  the  newcomer  to 
the  oxygen  of  the  air,  may  be  an  exceedingly  prolonged,  difficult, 
matter.  Such  a  baby  is  said  to  be  born  blue,  and  the  breathing 
may  be  stridorous  for  days,  becoming  normal  for  a  time,  to  be 
followed  later  by  spells  of  trouble  in  breathing,  breathlessness 
or  breathlessness  with  blueness,  and  threatened  extinction.  Some- 
times these  spells  come  out  of  a  clear  sky  in  an  apparently  healthy 
child.  That  some  poison,  probably  an  oversecretion  of  the 
thymus,  is  responsible  is  shown  by  the  relief  obtainable  by  X-ray 
shrinkage  of  the  gland,  or  the  surgical  removal  of  a  part  of  it. 

Moreover,  the  gland  is  influenced  by  and  influences  the  factors 
of  body  weight  and  growth  with  an  extreme  readiness  and 
lability.    Deficient  general  undernutrition  leads  to  rapid  decline 


THE  ADRENAL  GLANDS  87 

in  its  weight.  Back  in  1858,  the  pioneer  student  of  the  thymus, 
Friedleben,  declared  that  the  size  and  condition  of  the  thymus  is 
an  index  to  be  the  state  of  nutrition  of  the  body.  Underfeeding 
for  four  weeks  will  reduce  it  to  one  thirtieth  the  normal.  It 
seems  to  act  as  a  storage  and  reserve  organ,  affording  some 
protection  against  the  limitation  of  growth  by  lack  of  food 
material.  In  exhausting  or  wasting  disease,  the  weight  of  the 
gland  sinks  much  more  quickly  than  other  glands.  Scattered 
instances  have  been  reported  of  children  growing,  putting  on 
inches  in  height  and  expanding  mentally,  when  thymus  was  fed 
to  them,  in  whom  every  other  measure  previously  tried  had 
failed.  A  French  study  of  over  four  hundred  idiotic  children 
with  normal  thyroids  reported  that  over  three  fourths  had  no 
thymus  at  all.  Everything  points  to  the  most  direct  and  close 
relation  between  the  gland  and  nutrition  and  growth,  but  with 
nothing  tangibly  definite  like  our  knowledge  of  the  thyroid  and 
the  pituitary. 

There  is  evidence  that  the  thymus  is  involved  in  the  health  and 
efficiency  of  muscle  cells  and  muscularity.  Certain  tumors  of  the 
thymus,  presumably  destructive  of  the  gland  substance  proper, 
and  thus  cutting  off  its  secretion,  are  accompanied  by  a  singular 
muscle  weakness  and  atrophy  of  the  muscle  cells,  entirely  out  of 
proportion  to  the  general  damage  suffered  by  the  other  cells  of  the 
body  when  affected  by  the  poison  of  a  malignant  growth.  Also, 
the  thymus  has  been  discovered  diseased  in  certain  mysterious 
progressive  muscular  wastings.  A  remarkable  fatigability  of 
muscles,  which  appears  after  the  slightest  exertion,  is  a  feature. 
The  feeding  of  thymus  has  caused  muscle  cramps  which  appar- 
ently depends  upon  an  increased  excitability  of  the  muscle  nerve 
endings. 

Feeding  of  thymus  to  some  of  the  lower  creatures  of  the  animal 
kingdom  will  completely  hold  up  differentiation.  Take  the  un- 
folding of  the  specialized  tissues  and  organs  which  transform  the 
tadpole  into  the  frog  and  the  chrysalis  into  the  butterfly.  A 
tadpole  kept  supplied  with  enough  thymus  in  a  nutrient  medium 
will  swell  into  an  extraordinary  giant  tadpole,  but  will  not  change 
into  a  frog.  Recently,  this  experiment  has  been  contradicted. 
Yet  this  effect  corresponds  to  the  conception  of  its  importance  in 
childhood  as  a  retardant  of  precocity,  physical  and  mental. 
Clinical  observations  emphasize  that  in  childhood  it  is  the  chief 
brake  upon  the  other  glands  of  internal  secretion  which  would 


88        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

hasten  development  and  differentiation,  checking  them  perhaps 
for  a  given  time  and  so  profoundly  influencing  growth. 


The  Pineal 

The  pineal  is  another  gland  which  has  been  credited  with 
similar  abilities  and  a  like  holding-the-reins-tight-in-childhood 
function  among  the  cells.  Like  the  thymus,  it  has  been  supposed 
one  of  the  distinctive  organs  of  childhood  and  to  die  with  it. 
Generations  of  anatomists  solemnly  asserted,  repeating  each 
other's  mistakes  with  the  aplomb  of  the  historians  who  declare 
that  history  repeats  itself,  that  the  pineal  body  was  a  useless, 
wastefully  space  consuming  vestige  of  a  once  important  struc- 
ture. That  was  the  view  in  that  century  of  grandly  inaccurate 
assertions,  the  nineteenth.  Not  that  they  relegated  it  with  that 
statement  to  the  limbo  of  the  dull  and  the  uninteresting.  Quite 
the  contrary.  They  conferred  upon  it  a  distinguished  romance 
and  mystery  by  identifying  it  as  the  last  heir  and  vestigial  rem- 
nant of  a  third  eye,  situated  in  the  back  of  the  head,  which  may 
still  be  observed  in  certain  reptiles.  Imagine  it!  Somewhere, 
stuck  away  in  a  cranny  of  the  floor  of  your  head  and  mine,  is 
this  descendant  of  an  organ  that  once  sparkled  and  shone,  wept 
and  glared,  took  in  the  stars  and  hawks  and  eagles,  and  now  is 
condemned  to  eternal  darkness  and  an  ineffectual  sandiness. 
Today,  we  have  not  discarded  that  view  of  its  history,  but  we 
know  a  little  more  regarding  its  composition  and  function. 

What  and  where  is  the  romantic  object?  It  is  a  cone-shaped 
bit  of  tissue  hidden  away  at  the  base  of  the  brain  in  a  tiny  cave 
behind  and  above  its  larger  colleague,  the  pituitary.  Microscopic 
scrutiny  reveals  that  it  is  made  up  in  part  of  nerve  cells  contain- 
ing a  pigment  similar  to  that  present  in  the  cells  of  the  retina, 
thus  clinching  the  argument  for  its  ancient  function  as  an  eye. 
But  the  outstanding  and  specifically  glandular  cells  are  large 
secreting  affairs,  which  too  reach  back  to  the  tidewater  days  of 
our  vertebrate  ancestors,  when  Eurypterus  and  other  Crustaceans 
were  engrossed  with  the  fundamental  problems  of  brain  versus 
belly.  Besides  these,  there  are  the  singular  masses  upon  which 
has  been  fastened  the  unnecessarily  opprobious  epithet  of  brain 
sand.  These,  noted  and  commented  upon  from  the  earliest  times, 
consist  of  collections  of  crystals  of  lime  salts,  sometimes  small, 
lying  about  in  discrete  irregular  masses,  and  sometimes  grouped 


THE  ADRENAL  GLANDS  89 

into  larger  mulberry-like  concretions,  varying  much  in  size. 
These  brain  sand  particles  have  become  of  practical  importance 
in  the  detection  of  pineal  disease  because  they,  like  all  lime  salts, 
will  stop  the  X-rays,  and  so  can  be  photographed. 

For  a  long  time,  indeed  up  to  scarcely  more  than  a  few  decades 
or  so  ago,  the  pineal  was  believed  to  have  no  present  function 
at  all,  or  at  least  no  ascertainable  or  accessible  duty  in  the  body 
economy.  That  it  might  perhaps  be,  in  a  sense,  a  gland  of  inter- 
nal secretion  was  a  despised  theory.  Then  a  classic  case,  the 
most  extraordinary  and  curiosity-piquing  sort  of  case,  with  symp- 
toms involving  the  pineal  gland,  in  a  boy,  was  reported  by  the 
German  neurologist,  Von  Hochwart.  That  boy  provoked  a  little 
army  of  researches.  He  came  to  the  clinic  complaining  about 
his  eyes  and  other  troubles  which  pointed  pretty  definitely  to  a 
brain  tumor  as  the  diagnosis  to  pigeon-hole  him.  Nothing  extra- 
ordinary about  him  in  that  respect.  But  the  story  told  by  his 
parents  was  quite  extraordinary,  even  to  the  jaded  palate  of  the 
clinic  professor  and  his  assistants.  They  said  that  he  was  a 
little  over  five  years  old,  a  statement  conclusively  proved  correct 
at  his  death.  Up  to  the  time  at  which  his  illness  began,  he  had 
been  quite  normal  in  size,  intelligence  and  interests.  But  with 
the  onset  of  his  misfortune,  he  had  begun  to  grow,  and  rapidly 
until  now  he  looked  and  corresponded  in  all  measurements  to  a 
normal  boy  of  twelve  or  thirteen.  Hair  developed  all  over  his 
skin,  most  prominently  and  abundantly  in  the  typically  hairy 
places  of  adults.  His  voice  became  low-pitched,  and  most  re- 
markable of  all,  his  sexuality  and  mentality  precocious.  He 
became  capable  of  true  sexual  life  and  is  said  to  have  asked  many 
questions  about  the  fate  and  condition  of  the  soul  after  death. 
On  one  occasion  he  remarked  reflectively:  "It  is  odd  how  much 
better  I  feel  when  I  let  other  children  play  with  my  toys  than 
when  I  play  with  them  myself."  Other  statements  attributed  to 
him  imply  the  most  astounding  maturity  of  thought  and  mental 
process.  Headaches  finally  came,  and  he  died  about  four  weeks 
later.  The  cause  of  the  whole  bizarre  tragedy  was  found  to  be  a 
tumor  of  the  pineal  gland. 

As  has  happened  before  in  medical  history,  no  sooner  was  the 
one  prodigy  reported,  than  a  score  of  others  of  the  same  ilk 
sprang  into  the  limelight.  Cases  of  precocious  genital  develop- 
ment, especially,  some  of  them  occurring  as  early  as  the  second 
year  of  life,  were  linked  with  them.  It  is  an  interesting  point  to 
be  noted  that  in  these,  as  in  those  started  by  an  overaction  of  the 


90        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

adrenal  cortex,  it  is  premature  masculinity  that  is  stimulated. 
The  adrenal  cortex  must  be  classed  as  a  gland  of  masculinity. 
The  pineal  possibly  acts  as  a  brake  upon  the  adrenal  cortex. 

Very  soon  after  the  report  of  Von  Hochwart's  prodigy  ap- 
peared, an  experimental  research  on  the  pineal  was  begun  in  New 
York.  The  pineal  glands  of  a  number  of  young  bullocks  were 
obtained  and  used  for  feeding,  to  see  whether  an  overaction  of 
the  internal  secretion  could  be  produced.  Guinea  pigs,  kittens 
and  rabbits  were  used.  The  experiments  covered  about  two 
years  in  time.  Of  a  dozen  small  kittens,  the  subjects  outgrew 
the  controls  rapidly  in  activity,  size,  intelligence,  and  resistance 
to  intercurrent  disease.  Of  ten  small  rabbits,  the  controls  weighed 
about  a  third  less  than  the  subjects,  which  were  strikingly  clean, 
active,  fat  and  salacious. 

Feeding  of  the  gland  was  then  extended  to  a  particular  class  of 
defective  children,  children  with  well-shaped  heads,  normal  eyes, 
symmetrically  functioning  limbs,  excellent  digestion,  strong 
muscles  and  generally^  normal,  sometimes  rapid  growth.  It  is  to 
them,  particularly  when  mental  normality  has  progressed  up  to 
the  eighth,  tenth  or  twelfth  year  and  stopped,  that  the  term 
"moron"  has  been  applied.  They  have  been  a  hopeless  lot,  be- 
longing to  the  limbo  of  the  incurables.  Moreover,  they,  em- 
phatically the  physically  normal  ones,  differ  from  one  another 
enormously  in  the  extent  to  which  mental  operations  are  possible. 
As  all  transitions  and  degrees  exist,  no  definite  classification  and 
subdivision  of  them  has  been  made.  Yet  ever  since  the  cretin, 
once  looked  upon  as  an  eternally  damned  defective,  was  trans- 
formed by  thyroid  feeding  into  an  apparently  normal  being,  there 
has  been  no  dearth  of  effort  to  find  the  right  kind  of  internal 
secretion  to  fit  their  desperate  situations,  but  in  vain.  In  defec- 
tives with  definitely,  organically  damaged  brains,  no  result  of 
course  was  to  be  expected.  In  those  of  any  class  over  fifteen, 
no  response  has  been  elicited  by  feeding  pineal  gland.  In  the 
others  the  results  have  been  contradictory. 

A  set  of  observations  have  related  the  pineal  to  muscle  func- 
tion, inviting  comparison  of  it  with  the  thymus.  There  is  a 
singular  muscle  shrinking  and  deforming  disease,  known  as 
progressive  muscular  dystrophy,  hitherto  a  complete  and  unsolved 
mystery.  Newer  studies  of  the  pineal  in  this  disease  during  life 
by  means  of  the  X-ray  have  shown  it  calcified,  that  is,  buried  in 
lime  salts,  which  signifies  put  out  of  business.  Recently  thus 
another  hint  as  to  its  function  has  been  ferreted  out. 


THE  ADRENAL  GLANDS  91 

The  tadpole  as  a  reagent  to  test  out  the  growth  effects  of  differ- 
ent glands  of  internal  secretion  has  also  been  employed  for  the 
pineal.  Ten-day-old  tadpoles  fed  on  pineal  present  a  marked 
translucency  of  the  skin  due  to  a  retraction  of  the  skin  pigment 
cells.  Now  without  a  doubt  a  number  of  as  yet  unknown  growth 
and  metabolic  effects  follow  exposure  of  the  body  to  the  complete 
gamut  of  light  rays.  The  interesting  suggestion  follows  that  the 
pineal  influences  the  body  by  varying  the  degree  of  light  ray 
reaction. 

The  pineal,  the  ghost  of  a  once  important  third  eye  at  the 
back  of  our  heads,  still  harks  back  in  its  function  to  a  regulation 
of  our  susceptibility  to  light,  and  its  effect  upon  sex  and  brain. 
So  it  becomes  one  of  the  significant  regulators  of  development, 
with  an  indirect  hastening  or  retardation  of  puberty  and  maturity 
according  as  it  works  in  excess,  or  too  indolently.  It  appears 
thus  the  blood  brother  of  the  adrenal  cortex  which  also  influences 
the  skin  pigment  and  so  susceptibility  of  the  organism  to  light, 
brain  growth  and  sex  ripening.  It  is  interesting  that  Descartes, 
in  1628,  considered  the  pineal  the  seat  of  the  soul. 

The  Parathyroids 

Sometimes  imbedded  within  the  substance  of  the  thyroid  in  the 
neck,  sometimes  placed  directly  behind  it  upon'  the  windpipe, 
are  four  tiny  glands,  each  about  the  size  of  a  wheat  seed, 
the  parathyroids.  For  long  they  were  swamped  in  the  nearness 
of  their  great  neighbor,  and  considered  merely  a  variable  part  of 
it.  There  are  some  who  contend  that  even  today.  But  it  has 
been  proven  that  they  are  separate,  individual  glands,  with  a 
structure  and  function  of  their  own,  and  a  definite  importance 
to  the  body  economy. 

On  the  animal  family  tree  they  appear  early,  contempora- 
neously with  the  thyroids.  In  the  embryo  they  develop  from 
about  the  same  sites.  And  very  often  they  look  very  much  alike 
under  the  microscope,  especially  when  the  cells  are  in  certain 
quiescent  stage  of  secretion.  Yet  they  are  wholly  independent  in 
nature,  activity  and  business. 

First  experimenters  upon  the  effects  of  removal  of  the  thyroid 
were  confused  by  contradictory  findings  with  different  animals 
because  in  some  they  would  take  out  the  parathyroids  at  the 
same  time  without  knowing  it,  and  in  others  they  would  not. 
That  possibility  suggested,  more  careful  dissectors  accomplished 


92        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

the  job  of  extirpating  the  thyroid  while  leaving  the  parathyroids 
intact  and  vice  versa.  In  consequence  some  definite  information 
about  the  parathyroids  is  available,  even  though  their  internal 
secretion  has  never  been  isolated,  or  its  existence  established  as 
more  than  an  inference. 

When  the  parathyroids  are  removed,  an  astounding  increase 
in  the  excitability  of  the  nerves  follow.  It  is  as  if  the  animal 
were  thoroughly  poisoned  with  strychnine.  The  slightest  stimu- 
lus will  make  him  jump,  or  throw  him  into  a  spasm.  When  the 
excitability  of  the  nerves  is  measured  by  an  electrical  instrument 
it  is  found  augmented  by  from  five  hundred  to  one  thousand  per 
cent.  The  reflexes,  those  automatic  responses  of  brain  and  spinal 
cord  to  certain  stimuli  and  situations,  become  enormously  sensi- 
tive, so  that  merely  letting  the  light  into  a  darkened  room  will 
make  the  subject  of  the  experiment  go  into  a  series  of  convul- 
sions. 

On  the  chemical  side,  an  explanation  for  these  nervous  phe- 
nomena has  been  advanced.  Lime  in  the  blood  and  cells  appears 
to  be  necessary  in  a  number  of  ways.  In  the  making  of  bone 
and  teeth,  in  the  coagulation  of  the  blood,  in  the  keeping  of  fluid 
within  the  blood  vessels,  and  in  maintaining  the  tone  of  the 
nerves,  it  plays  a  major  role.  Now  the  parathyroids,  among  all 
the  glands  of  internal  secretion,  seem  to  act  as  the  prime  regula- 
tors of  the  amount  of  lime  held  within  the  blood  and  cells.  For 
when  the  parathyroids  have  been  completely  and  aseptically  ex- 
cised, without  injuring  any  other  organ,  immediately  the  body 
begins  to  lose  lime.  Something  has  gone  out  of  it  that  helped 
it  to  bind  lime,  and  without  that  essential  something,  the  internal 
secretion  presumably  of  the  parathyroids,  the  lime  departs.  As 
a  conspicuous  consequence  the  teeth  fail  to  develop  properly, 
particularly  as  to  their  enamel,  for  which  lime  is  an  essential 
constituent.  Hair  is  lost,  there  is  a  general  wasting,  the  nails 
get  brittle,  and  the  bones  soften,  and  the  animal  dies.  Supplying 
lime  directly,  particularly  by  direct  injection  into  the  blood,  will 
relieve  the  symptoms. 

In  man,  a  condition  of  nervous  over-excitability  has  been 
described  as  tetany.  It  occurs  most  often  in  the  young,  the  preg- 
nant, or  in  vomiting  after  operations.  All  sorts  of  tests  have 
related  the  malady  to  the  phenomena  succeeding  parathyroid 
deprivation,  and  they  are  now  looked  upon  as  aspects  of  it. 
Individuals  have  been  reported  suffering  from  an  insufficiency  of 
the  internal  secretion  of  parathyroids,  with  a  sudden  extreme  de- 


THE  ADRENAL  GLANDS  93 

pression,  nervousness  and  restlessness,  an  inability  to  sleep  or 
sit  still,  and  a  tremulous  handwriting.  Such  reports  round  out 
the  evidence  for  the  importance  of  the  parathyroids  in  an 
understanding  of  the  factors  which  control  growth,  especially  as 
regards  lime  utilization,  for  without  lime  properly  handled  no 
building  of  cells  is  possible.  Also  the  parathyroids  are  necessary 
to  a  steadiness  of  muscle  and  nerve. 

The  Pancreas 

The  business  of  the  parathyroids  concerns  the  keeping  of  lime 
in  the  body.  Another  gland,  the  pancreas  or  sweetbreads,  this 
time  within  the  abdomen,  a  close  neighbor  of  the  solar  plexus, 
alias  the  abdominal  brain,  is  occupied  with  holding  and  hoarding 
sugar  in  the  body,  particularly  in  the  liver,  the  great  sugar  ware- 
house. This  matter  of  retaining  sugar  and  controlling  its  output 
is  one  of  the  utmost  significance  for  growth  and  metabolism,  the 
resistance  to  infections,  the  response  to  emergency  situations,  and 
in  general  to  the  mobilization  of  energy  for  physical  and  mental 
purposes.  For  without  sugar  sufficiently  at  hand  for  the  cells, 
no  muscle  work  or  nerve  work,  the  essentials  of  the  struggle  for 
existence,  are  possible. 

The  pancreas  is  an  organ  with  both  an  internal  and  external 
secretion.  The  external  secretion,  long  known,  evolved  by  the 
major  portion  of  the  gland,  is  poured  into  the  small  intestine 
to  play  the  star  in  digestion.  Scattered  here  and  there  among 
the  definitely  glandular  cell  groups  creating  the  external  secre- 
tion are  smaller  collections  of  cells,  called  the  islets  of  Langer- 
hans,  which  have  been  demonstrated  to  elaborate  the  internal 
secretion.  There  are  about  a  million  of  these  islands  in  each 
gland.  The  hormone  has  been  called  insuline.  Unlike  most  of 
the  glands  with  a  double  secretion  in  which  the  internal  is  abso- 
lutely independent,  and  so  to  speak,  unconscious  of  the  external, 
these  two  of  the  pancreas  are  often  disturbed  together,  perhaps 
because  trouble  easily  hits  them  both  together. 

Quite  the  most  well-known  disease  due  to  disturbed  internal 
secretory  function  of  the  pancreas  is  diabetes.  An  enormous 
amount  of  work  has  been  spent  upon  the  various  aspects  of  it 
as  a  mystery.  Hundreds  of  papers  in  a  dozen  languages  upon 
the  subject  are  in  existence.  In  a  nutshell,  they  have  established 
pretty  well  that  diabetes  is  a  disease  in  which  there  is  an  excess 
of  sugar  in  the  blood  and  urine  because  of  an  insufficient  amount 


94        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

of  the  secretion  of  the  islands  of  Langerhans  in  the  pancreas. 
Removal  of  the  pancreas  makes  the  body,  essentially  the  liver, 
unable  to  retain  sugar,  as  well  as  unable  to  burn  up  sugar  for 
energy.  The  situation  is  comparable  to  a  locomotive  with  its 
coal  bins  leaking,  and  the  coal  itself  acting  as  if  made  of  slate 
or  some  equally  uncombustible  or  only  partially  combustible 
material. 

The  control  of  sugar  mobilization  from  the  liver,  where  it 
is  stored  as  glycogen  or  animal  starch,  is  divided  between  the 
pancreas  and  the  adrenals,  the  pancreas  acting  as  the  brake,  the 
adrenals  as  the  accelerator  of  the  mechanism.  Adrenal  and  pan- 
creas are  therefore  direct  antagonists,  the  pans  of  the  scale  which 
represents  sugar  equilibrium  in  the  organism.  Diabetes  may  be 
regarded  as  a  disturbance  of  the  adrenal-pancreas  balance, 
assisted  by  events  which  produce  adrenal  overwork  like  great 
or  prolonged  emotion,  or  by  strain  of  the  pancreas,  effected  by 
over-eating  for  example. 

There  are  other  minor  glands  of  internal  secretions.  But  those 
considered  are  by  far  the  most  important  and  the  most  recently 
explored.    In  a  summary,  one  would  classify  them  as  follows: 


Name 


Secretion 


Function 


1.  Thyroid 


Thyroxin 


Gland  of  energy  pro- 
duction 

Controller  of  growth 
of  specialized  or- 
gans and  tissues — 
brain  and  sex 


2.  Pituitary- 


anterior 


Tethelin 


posterior  Pituitrin 


Gland  of  energy  con- 
sumption and 
utilization — con- 
tinued effort 

Growth  of  skeleton 
and  supporting  tis- 
sues 

Nerve  cell  and  invol- 
untary muscle 
cell,  brain  and 
sex  tone 


THE  ADRENAL  GLANDS 


3.  Adrenals 


cortex 


medulla 


The      Gland 
Combat 
Unknown 


Adrenalin 


of 


Brain  growth — one 
development  of 
sex  glands 

Energy  for  emer- 
gency situations 


4.  Pineal 


Unknown 


5.  Thymus 

6.  Interstitial 

glands  of 

7.  Parathyroids 


Unknown 
Testes  in  male 
Ovaries  in  female 
Unknown 


a.  Brain  and  sex  de- 

velopment 

b.  Adolescence      and 

puberty 

c.  Light   and  matur- 

ity 

Gland  of  Childhood 
Glands  of  secondary 
Sex  traits 

a.  Controllers  of  lime 

metabolism 

b.  Excitability        o  f 

muscle     and 
nerve 


8.  Pancreas 


Insuline 


Controller    of    sugar 
metabolism 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  GLANDS  AS  AN  INTERLOCKING  DIRECTORATE 

Now  in  considering  each  gland  of  internal  secretion  as  a  sep- 
arate entity,  and  labelling  it  with  certain  properties  and  actions, 
we  of  course  commit  the  usual  sin  of  the  intellect:  the  sin  of 
abstraction  and  isolation  of  its  material.  This  crime  of  analysis 
the  intellect  commits  every  day  in  the  search  for  truth.  Before 
its  dissection,  it  seems  to  have  to  dip  the  elusive  article  in  a  fixa- 
tive, and  bottle  it  in  a  vacuum. 

Yet  nothing  in  reality  is  more  of  a  changing  flux  than  the  body 
in  all  of  its  parts  and  tissues  and  organs.  And  of  all  these,  the 
glands  of  internal  secretion  stand  out  as  the  most  susceptible  to 
change.  Made  to  react  to  stimuli  of  offense  and  defense,  instan- 
taneously responsive  to  situations  involving  energy  exchanges  and 
protective  reflexes,  they  are  never  for  any  minute  the  same  or 
alone.  They  never  function  separately.  Each  influences  the 
other  in  a  communicating  chain.  Let  one  be  disturbed,  and  all 
the  others  will  feel  the  impact  of  the  disturbance  and  vibrate 
with  it. 

Any  break  in  the  somatic  or  psychic  equilibrium,  a  blow  or  an 
infection,  or  a  startling  thing  seen,  or  a  worrisome  thought  felt, 
will  start  a  process  going.  This  will  only  wind  up  when  every 
gland  has  been  somehow  touched,  and  a  final  equilibrium  re- 
established. The  thyroid,  maybe,  was  first  excited,  and  then  in 
turn  the  adrenals,  with  a  boomerang  reinforcing  effect  upon 
the  thyroid,  and  at  the  same  time  a  stimulating  effect  upon  the 
pituitary.  Each  gland  is  thus  influenced  and  influencing,  agent 
and  reagent  in  trie  complex  adjustments  of  the  organism. 

Endocrine  Co-operations 

The  body-mind  is  a  perfect  corporation.  Not  quite  perfect, 
for  continually  there  arise  little  insurgencies,  inadequacies  and 
frictions  to  which  in  time  it  will  succumb.  Yet,  in  the  efficiency 
of  its  co-operations,  and  in  the  co-ordination  of  the  needs  and 

96 


GLANDS    AS    AN    INTERLOCKING    DIRECTORATE    97 

supplies  of  producer,  middle  man,  and  consumer,  there  is  no 
one  of  the  great  organizations  of  the  captains  of  industry  which 
can  for  a  moment  approach  it. 

Of  this  corporation  the  glands  of  internal  secretion  are  the 
directors.  But  the  huge  corporation,  not  to  topple  over  with 
its  own  unwieldy  size,  must  be  composed  of  smaller  units,  each 
within  itself  a  corporation,  and  governed  by  a  directorate.  There 
are,  in  the  corporation-organism,  different  departments  and 
bureaus,  subdivisions  of  function,  which  constitute  the  smaller 
corporations  within  the  larger  corporation.  These  subsidiary 
companies  have  their  own  glands  of  internal  secretion  as  their 
directors. 

Thus,  the  growth  of  the  brain  is  presided  over  by  the  adrenal 
cortex,  the  thyroid,  the  thymus  and  the  pituitary.  They  deter- 
mine the  size  of  the  brain,  the  number  of  its  cells,  the  complexity 
of  its  convolutions  and  the  speed  of  its  chemistry,  which  means 
the  speed  of  thought  and  memory  and  imagination.  As  its  direc- 
torate, therefore,  they  may  be  entitled.  The  disturbance  of  one 
of  them  means  the  disturbance  of  all  of  them,  and  a  consequent 
deleterious  effect  upon  the  brain.  Now  take  the  burning  up  of 
sugar  in  the  organism,  the  great  material  source  of  energy,  which 
is  controlled  by  the  pancreas,  the  adrenals  and  the  liver,  the 
thyroid  and  the  pituitary.  Together  they  form  the  directorate 
of  sugar  metabolism.  But,  as  is  evident  from  a  glance  at  the 
membership  of  the  growth  directorate,  and  comparing  it  with 
the  directorate  of  sugar  metabolism,  there  are  some  members 
who  are  present  on  both  boards.  An  infection,  an  illness,  an  ail- 
ment, an  exaltation  or  intoxication  of  such  members  will  produce 
reverberations  in  both  directorates.  A  disturbance  of  sugar 
metabolism  might  then  cause  a  disturbance  of  growth.  The 
advantages  and  disadvantages  are  before  us  of  having,  in  the 
glands  of  internal  secretion,  an  interlocking  directorate,  rulers 
over  all  the  varied  and  manifold  activities  of  the  organism. 

Behind  the  body,  and  behind  the  mind  is  this  board  of  gov- 
ernors. Indeed,  from  the  administrative  and  legislative  points 
of  view,  the  body-mind  may  be  said  to  be  governed  by  the  House 
of  Glands.  It  is  the  invisible  committee  behind  the  throne. 
Upon  the  throne  is  what?  Man,  the  most  baffling  of  complexi- 
ties. Man  who  is  not  a  mind,  but  owns  a  mind — Man  who  is  not 
a  body,  but  possesses  a  body,  just  as  he  might  have  a  motor  car, 
a  fortune  or  a  calamity.  Back  of  all  his  daily  activities,  behind 
the  life  of  body-mind  is  the  mysterious  unique  individuality,  the 


98        THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

Ego,  the  Psyche  or  the  Soul.  Lately,  a  competitor  with  these 
ancient  and  honorable  terms  has  come  upon  the  scene  as  the 
Subconscious.  In  that  darkened  No  Man's  Land  is  determined 
a  man's  destiny.  The  endocrine  association  stands  out  as  at 
least  the  most  important  physical  determinant  of  the  states  and 
processes  of  the  subconscious. 

Antagonisms  and  Co-operations 

As  within  a  corporation  there  are  factions  and  cliques,  influ- 
ences that  always  work  together,  and  forces  that  are  always 
pulling  in  opposite  directions,  so  within  the  interlocking  direc- 
torate of  the  ductless  glands  there  are  antagonisms  and  inhibi- 
tions, co-operations  and  compensations.  One  gland  will  assist 
the  action  of  another's  secretion  with  its  own,  or  will  in  turn  be 
stimulated  to  secrete  by  it.  Another  will  throw  out  its  secretion 
in  order  to  neutralize  the  effects  produced.  Or  its  own  activity 
will  be  depressed  or  completely  inhibited  by  it.  Thus  the  pitui- 
tary arouses  the  interstitial  glands  and  vice  versa,  whereas  the 
pancreas  and  the  thyroid  are  mutually  inhibitory.  Indeed,  whole 
systems  of  glands  may  work  in  unison,  or  be  pitted  against  each 
other  in  certain  situations,  especially  when  the  organism  is  sub- 
jected to  conflicting  impulses  with  the  clash  of  opposing  instincts, 
like  fear  and  anger.  In  general  there  is  reciprocity  and  team 
work  among  the  internal  secretions. 

A  certain  minimum  amount  of  each  must  be  present  if  life 
is  to  continue  along  the  normal  lines.  Whether  there  is  to  be 
an  excess  of  any  one  secretion  above  this  minimum,  or  a  de- 
ficiency below  it,  decides  the  fate  of  the  individual.  If  there  is 
deficiency  of  one,  the  other  members  of  the  directorate  attempt 
to  make  up  for  what  has  been  lost,  and  to  carry  on  its  work  by 
an  extra  effort,  to  substitute.  Or,  released  from  the  discipline  of 
the  deficient  member,  or  the  necessity  for  antagonizing  it,  they 
may  be  released  from  its  stimulus  to  secrete,  and  produce  less  of 
their  own  specific  secretion.  A  general  reaction  all  along  the  line 
will  accompany  overaction,  oversecretion,  of  one  gland.  Due  to 
consequent  stimulations  and  depressions  of  other  glands,  some 
may  be  excited  by  the  event  to  overwork — some  to  assist — 
others,  to  act  as  antidote  for — the  excess  secretion,  while  still 
others,  relieved  of  a  burden,  do  not  have  to  supply  as  much  of 
their  quota  under  the  circumstances  and  so  shut  down,  or  limit 
their  output. 


GLANDS    AS    AN    INTERLOCKING    DIRECTORATE    99 

It  is  important  to  get  clearly  in  mind  these  subtle  inter-reac- 
tions of  the  different  ductless  glands.  They  may  be  antagonistic 
in  their  end  effects  becau.se  of  the  opposed  functions  of  the  nerves 
or  organs  stimulated.  There  are  inhibitions  and  restraints  pro- 
duced when  a  gland  will  send  out  its  secretions  to  stop  another 
gland  secreting.  There  are  compensations  resulting  when  be- 
cause of  insufficiency  of  a  gland,  others  will  endeavour,  by  manu- 
facturing more  of  their  own  secretion,  to  compensate  for  the  loss. 
There  are  mutual  co-operations,  partnerships,  when  a  gland  will 
oversecrete  to  assist  another,  or  in  response  to  another  which  is 
also  oversecreting.  There  are  losses  of  balance,  so  that  when 
one  gland  ceases  secreting,  another  will  simultaneously  or  soon 
after.  Normal  secretion,  oversecretion  or  undersecretion  are 
thus  adjusted,  but  leave  a  train  of  after  effects. 

So  with  loss  or  insufficiency  of  the  thyroid,  there  may  be 
pituitary  overgrowth,  because  the  pituitary  may  act  as  vicar 
for  the  thyroid.  The  thyroid  and  thymus  are  antagonistic,  for 
the  thyroid  hastens  differentiation,  puberty  and  the  coming  of 
sexual  maturity,  while  the  thymus  delays  and  retards  them  and 
prolongs  the  period  of  childhood.  The  thyroid  and  the  pancreas 
are  antagonists,  for  when  the  thyroid  has  been  excised,  the 
pancreas  appear  no  longer  necessary  to  act  as  a  break  upon  the 
mechanism  of  sugar  liberation  into  the  blood  from  the  liver. 
The  thyroid  stimulates  the  interstitial  glands,  for  menstruation 
and  pregnancy  are  impossible  with  no  thyroid  or  an  insufficient 
thyroid.  Removal  of  the  pituitary  makes  the  thymus  shrink 
because  the  restraining  influence  of  the  latter  is  no  longer  needed. 
But  there  is  an  enlargement  of  the  thyroid  to  compensate.  In 
castrates  there  is  an  increase  in  the  size  and  number  of  the  cells 
of  the  anterior  pituitary,  again  a  compensation  or  substitution 
effect.  The  pituitary  and  the  adrenal  cortex  are  mutually  assist- 
ant, alike  in  their  influence  upon  the  tone  of  the  brain  and  sex 
cells. 

The  Kinetic  System 

So  there  are  combinations  of  glands  to  assist  or  restrain  others, 
or  to  control  a  body  function,  or  to  determine  the  domination 
or  abeyance  of  an  instinct.  One  such  has  been  named  the  kinetic 
system  because  it  comes  into  play  in  situations  which  demand 
prompt  adaptation  without  hesitancy,  and  a  consequent  imme- 
diate transformation  of  static  or  stored  energy  into  kinetic  or 


100      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

active  energy.  According  to  this  conception  the  brain,  the 
adrenals,  the  liver,  the  thyroid  and  the  muscles  together  con- 
stitute a  machine  very  much  like  an  automobile.  The  self- 
starter  of  the  machine  is  the  brain,  with  storage  battery  (com- 
posed of  stored  past  memories)  and  ignition  combined.  The 
thing  seen  without,  or  the  idea  felt  within,  act  as  the  initial 
sparks,  while  the  adrenals,  as  the  carburetors,  permit  the  freer 
flow  of  fuel,  sugar,  from  the  liver.  The  thyroid  works  as  the 
accelerator,  the  original  impulse  finally  landing  upon  muscles 
keyed  up  and  supplied  with  food  to  meet  the  situation,  be  it 
that  of  removing  a  poison,  removing  an  aggressor  (attack)  or 
removing  the  individual  himself  (running  away).  When  one  is 
exhausted  by  exertion  and  emotion,  injury,  intoxication  or  infec- 
tion, it  is  these  members  of  the  kinetic  system,  the  brain,  the 
adrenals,  thyroid  and  liver,  which  are  exhausted.  Exhaustion 
diminishes  when  the  activity  of  the  brain  is  diminished  by 
anesthetics,  and  cured  when  it  is  abolished  by  sleep. 

If  the  adrenal  gland  may  be  called  the  Gland  of  Emergency 
energy,  the  Kinetic  System  is  entitled  to  the  name  of  Council  of 
Emergency  Defense  for  the  organism.  The  Kinetic  Drive  is  the 
name  that  has  been  given  to  the  whole  system  at  work.  It  is 
one  of  the  best  examples  we  have  of  inter-glandular  co-operations 
and  reactions  in  reply  to  the  threat  of  danger  or  the  hint  of 
pleasure. 

The  Check  and  Drive  System 

Another  instance  of  the  complexity  of  these  inter-glandular 
reactions  is  furnished  by  the  thyroid  and  the  adrenals.  The 
thyroid  and  the  adrenals  are  mutually  stimulating — when  the 
thyroid  oversecretes,  the  adrenal  dittos,  and  vice  versa.  Yet 
they  have  directly  opposed  effects  upon  the  economy — because 
they  act  upon  antagonistic  portions  of  the  involuntary  or  vege- 
tative nervous  system,  the  system  which  is  independent  of  the 
will.  Before  proceeding  further,  it  is  worth  while  sketching  this 
division  of  the  nervous  system. 

In  the  construction  of  a  motor  car  from  the  point  of  view  of 
absolute  control  of  it  at  every  moment,  the  first  thought  of  the 
mechanic  is  an  adequate  brake  and  an  efficient  regulator  of  speed, 
instruments  antagonistic,  but  necessary  to  work  simultaneously 
or  alternately.  The  involuntary  or  vegetative  nervous  system  is 
built  upon  the  same  principle.    It  supplies  every  organ  in  the 


GLANDS    AS    AN    INTERLOCKING    DIRECTORATE  101 

body  beyond  the  control  of  the  will  (that  is  to  say,  the  brain) 
with  two  sets  of  filaments  which  have  opposing  functions.  One 
group  of  filaments  in  general  increases  or  activates  the  function 
of  the  organ  to  which  it  is  distributed.  The  other  group  of 
filaments,  when  tingling,  inhibits  or  prohibits  that  function. 
They  are  like  the  two  buttons  on  the  wall  which  regulate  the 
supply  of  electricity  to  incandescent  bulbs,  one  switching  on  the 
current,  the  other  switching  it  off.  It  has  been  agreed  to  call  the 
stimulative  or  activating  portion  the  autonomic  or  drive  system. 
To  its  antagonist  has  been  left  the  older  name  of  the  sympathetic 
or  check  system.  It  is  because  they  do  not  both  act  upon  these 
two  components  of  the  vegetative  nervous  system,  but  only  upon 
one,  that  the  thyroid  and  adrenal  though  in  themselves  comple- 
mentary, come  to  exert  opposite  effects.  For  the  internal  secre- 
tion of  the  thyroid  has  a  selective  affinity  for  the  autonomic  or 
activating  system,  while  that  of  the  adrenals  has  a  selective 
affinity  for  the  sympathetic  or  inhibiting  system. 

In  the  stomach,  for  instance,  extracts  of  the  adrenal  glands 
have  been  proved  to  intensify  the  function  of  the  sympathetic  or 
check  system  in  different  degrees,  so  that  there  is  a  lessening  of 
the  amount  and  acidity  of  the  gastric  fluid.  On  the  other  hand, 
thyroid  extracts  will  intensify  the  action  of  the  autonomic  or 
drive  system,  so  that  the  amount  and  acidity  of  the  digestive 
juice  is  increased. 

The  stomach  cell  may,  therefore,  be  regarded  as  a  test-reagent 
for  the  different  internal  secretions,  as  they  affect  the  check  and 
drive  systems. 

These  constitute  an  automatic  device  for  regulating  the  activi- 
ties of  every  organ.  Three  factors  enter  into  the  mechanism. 
One  is  the  amount  of  the  circulating  internal  secretions.  Another 
is  the  organic  and  functional  integrity  of  the  nerve  filaments 
comprising  the  check  and  drive  systems.  The  third  consists 
of  the  number  and  vitality  and  limitations  of  the  terminal  re- 
ceiving cells  acted  upon  by  the  nerve  filaments,  which  in  their 
turn  have  been  acted  upon  by  the  internal  secretions.  Upon 
every  organ,  including  the  mind,  through  the  brain,  a  stimulus 
from  without  or  within  will  act  according  to  its  ability  to  influ- 
ence one  or  others  of  these  factors. 

Normally,  the  check  and  drive  systems  are  properly  balanced. 
But  under  stress  and  strain  the  balance  is  upset.  Indeed,  the 
Kinetic  Drive  may  be  defined  as  a  mechanism  contrived  in  the 
course  of  evolution  as  the  normal,  healthy  mode  for  meeting 


102      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

stress  and  strain.  The  Kinetic  chain  of  organs,  brain,  adrenals, 
liver,  thyroid  and  muscles,  began  working  together  in  desperate 
situations  for  their  possessor  ages  ago.  Successful  in  helping  him 
to  survive,  they  have  survived  as  a  functional  unit. 

It  was  probably  evolved  in  the  Post-Tertiary  Era,  about  twenty 
million  years  ago,  when  the  coming  of  the  carnivores  introduced 
direct  body-to-body  conflicts,  and  their  concomitants,  a  quick 
and  versatile  nervous  system.  During  the  Tertiary  epoch  the 
earth  basked  in  the  heat  of  a  tropical  sun  nearly  everywhere  on 
its  surface.  The  luxuriant  vegetation  of  the  torrid  zone  flourished 
and  swarmed,  for  the  temperature  all  over  was  what  it  is  today 
at  the  equator.  Gigantic  vegetarians  were  the  animals,  creatures 
like  the  dinosaurs,  enormous,  gargoylean  monsters,  of  an  in- 
credible size  and  strength,  but  clumsy  and  grotesque,  with  small 
brains  and  little  intelligence.  For  what  need  was  there  for  brain 
and  intelligence  when  food  lay  about  so  abundantly  at  hand  for 
them  to  gorge  themselves.  As  there  was  no  competition  for  food, 
there  were  no  enemies. 

Then  as  the  earth  evolved  and  grew  cooler,  vegetation  failed, 
the  ancestors  of  the  present  carnivora  appeared,  the  fathers  of 
the  wolf  and  tiger,  light,  lithe  and  pugnacious,  with  senses  acute 
and  ferocious  weapons  of  attack,  who  set  out  to  destroy  every- 
body. They  destroyed  pretty  nearly  all  of  the  huge  leaf-eating 
species,  and  only  the  more  plastic  and  smaller  ones,  who  were 
more  keen-sensed  and  swift-footed  (of  whom  the  deer  and  ante- 
lope, horse  and  ox  are  the  descendants),  escaped.  The  smallest 
either  took  to  the  air  to  become  the  bat,  or,  like  the  forerunners  of 
the  squirrel  and  ape,  took  to  the  trees. 

It  was  the  coming  of  the  carnivores,  therefore,  that  accelerated 
the  development  of  brain  matter,  and  started  the  process  which 
created  man.  But  in  the  millions  and  millions  of  years  of  con- 
flicts, instincts  grew  into  being  that  sank  deep  into  bone  and 
marrow.  The  most  fundamental  reflexes,  those  immediate  re- 
sponses to  irritation  or  danger,  were  laid  down,  and  among  them 
the  drive  and  check  system.  When  the  animal  had  decided  to 
fight  its  enemy  or  was  forced  to  fight,  or  determined  to  prey, 
then  was  the  time  for  the  drive  system  to  do  its  utmost  to  speed 
up  everything  that  would  help  in  the  fight,  while  the  check 
system  came  into  play  to  hinder  whatever  would  interfere 
or  burden  in  the  fray.  First  the  drive  mechanism  must  have 
been  hit  upon,  and  then  the  value  of  the  check  devices  must 
have  been  found  in  fear  and  flight,  and  especially  in  hiding  and 


GLANDS    AS    AN    INTERLOCKING    DIRECTORATE  103 

simulation  of  death,  when  even  breathing  had  to  be  inhibited. 
Until  finally  there  developed,  for  everyday  use,  a  complete  check, 
and  drive  nerve  machinery  for  every  organ,  to  be  used  according 
to  the  exigencies  of  the  moment,  with  the  thyroid  as  the  primary 
stimulant  and  controller  of  the  drive  system  and  the  adrenal 
as  the  primary  dictator  over  the  check  system. 

The  Harmony  of  the  Hormones 

All  the  glands,  in  fact,  work  in  unison,  with  a  distribution  of 
the  balance  of  power  that  diplomatists  might  envy.  In  the  co- 
ordinating synchronism,  the  vegetative  nervous  system  plays  the 
part  of  an  agent  that  acts  as  well  as  is  acted  upon.  The  chemical 
interaction  of  the  internal  secretions  is  not  the  only  way  in 
which  they  influence  each  other.  For,  as  the  case  of  the  thyroid 
and  the  adrenal  so  well  shows,  secretions  which,  when  directly 
interacting,  are  mutually  reinforcing,  when  affecting  nerves,  may 
become  clashing  opponents. 

The  Kinetic  Chain  is  about  as  good  a  case  as  there  is  of  the 
glands  of  internal  secretion  co-operating.  The  Check  and  Drive 
systems,  with  the  adrenals  and  thyroid  opposed,  are  one  of  the 
best  instances  of  their  antagonisms.  Besides,  there  are  a  number 
of  other  relationships  between  them  that  might  be  cited.  They 
all  bear  with  more  or  less  pressure,  positive  or  negative,  upon 
the  sex  glands  which  will  be  considered  in  its  place.  If  one 
wished  to  consider  all  the  glands  in  their  pro  and  anti  relations, 
a  separate  volume  would  be  required. 

The  Vegetative  Apparatus 

The  combination  of  the  internal  secretions  and  the  vegetative 
system  has  been  spoken  of  as  the  vegetative  or  autonomic  appa- 
ratus. The  vegetative  apparatus  is  the  oldest  part  of  the  nervous 
system.  And  some  acquaintance  with  its  constitution  is  neces- 
sary to  any  understanding  of  the  possibilities  of  control  of  human 
nature. 

For  modern  thought  does  not  regard  the  brain  as  the  organ  of 
mind  at  all,  but  as  one  unit  of  a  complex  synthesis,  of  which 
mind  is  .the  product,  and  the  vegetative  apparatus  is  the  major 
component.  That  involves  the  blasting  of  the  last  current  super- 
stition of  the  traditional  psychology,  the  dogma  that  the  brain 
is  the  exclusive  seat  of  mind. 


104      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

That  an  animal  is  a  vast  concourse  of  cells  is  one  of  the  ac- 
cepted fundamentals  of  biology.  What  is  not  so  generally  taken 
into  consideration  is  that  the  assemblage  is  formed  by  the 
agglutinations  of  millions  of  years,  and  that  it  is  hence  composed 
of  parts  of  different  ages  and  pedigrees,  some  exceedingly  ancient 
and  hoary,  some  middle-aged,  and  some  relatively  new  and  recent. 
In  the  invertebrates,  who  date  further  back  in  the  history  of 
the  planet  than  any  vertebrate,  the  nervous  system  consists  of 
discrete  patches  of  nerve  cells,  the  ganglions  composing  the 
ganglionic  system  of  which  the  vegetative  or  autonomic  nervous 
system  of  man  is  the  direct  descendant  and  representative.  The 
brain  and  central  nervous  system  are  definitely  later  acquisitions, 
imposed  upon  the  original  stratum  of  the  check  and  drive 
machine. 

The  primitive  chassis  of  the  mechanism,  so  to  speak,  is  the  so- 
called  vegetative  nervous  system.  Grouped  with  that  system 
are  the  primeval  breathing,  feeding  and  reproducing  inventions, 
the  viscera  boxed  up  in  the  chest  and  abdomen.  The  third 
partner  is  the  glands  of  internal  secretion,  which  act  upon  the 
viscera  both  directly  and  indirectly  through  the  check  and  drive 
effect  upon  the  vegetative  nerves.  The  glands  are  like  tuning 
keys,  by  which  certain  strings  in  the  instrument  may  be  tight- 
ened, so  that  its  vibratory  activity  is  increased,  or  they  may 
be  loosened,  the  vibrations  decreased,  the  activity  lessened. 
Tuning  up  the  motors  is  a  constant  process  in  the  organism. 
Finally,  there  are  the  large  nerve  masses  at  the  base  of  the 
brain  known  as  the  basal  ganglia,  which  contain  the  nerve 
centers  for  the  co-ordination  of  the  other  three.  All  these  to- 
gether constitute  the  oldest  family  of  the  corporate  organism. 
Beside  them,  the  brain  and  the  face  and  the  prehensile  organs 
are  mere  parvenus. 

The  Oldest  Part  of  the  Mind 

Granted,  then,  that  this  vegetative  apparatus  is  the  most 
deeply  rooted  core  of  our  being.  What  warrant  is  there  for  the 
grandiloquence  of  the  phrase:  the  Oldest  part  of  the  Mind? 
There  is,  indeed,  room  for  rhetoric,  even  poetry,  here.  For  all 
the  evidence  points  to  it  as  the  rightful  occupant  of  the  throne 
upon  which  Shelley  placed  his  Brownie  as  the  Soul  of  the  Soul. 
Or  to  put  it  in  another  way,  we  think  and  feel  primarily  with 
the  vegetative  apparatus,  with  our  muscles,  especially  the  invol- 


GLANDS    AS    AN    INTERLOCKING    DIRECTORATE  105 

untary,  with  our  viscera,  and  particularly  with  our  internal 
secretions.  Whenever  there  is  thought  and  feeling,  there  is  move- 
ment, commotion,  precedent  and  concomitant,  among  these. 
They  are  the  oldest  seats  of  feeling,  thought  and  will  and  con- 
tinue to  function  as  such. 

Just  what  evidence  is  there  for  this  conception?  In  the  first 
place,  there  is  the  fascinating  story  of  the  origin  of  vertebrates 
from  invertebrates  of  the  sea  scorpion  or  spider  type.  Then  there 
is  a  whole  group  of  data  which  demonstrate  that  the  primitive 
wishes  which  make  up  the  content  of  a  baby  consciousness  are 
determined,  settled  by  states  of  relaxation  or  tension  in  different 
segments  or  areas  of  the  vegetative  apparatus.  According  to 
this,  the  brain  enters  as  only  one  of  the  characters  in  the  play 
of  consciousness.  It  is  just  the  organ  of  awareness  by  the  organ- 
ism of  itself  as  an  integer  which  must  adjust  itself  to  the  specific 
condition  within  the  disturbed  vegetative  apparatus.  Conse- 
quently the  brain  emerges  not  as  the  master  tissue,  but  as  merely 
the  servant  of  the  vegetative  apparatus. 

Consciousness  is  a  circuit.  Swinging  around  in  it  are  the 
wish-feelings  generated  by  the  vegetative  dynamo.  From  each 
viscus,  from  the  stomach  and  intestine,  from  the  kidneys  and 
bladder,  from  the  liver  and  spleen,  from  the  blood-vessels,  from 
all  the  glands  of  external  and  internal  secretion,  there  flow  along 
the  vegetative  nerves,  to  and  from  the  brain,  energies  of  various 
qualities  and  intensities.  All  the  members  of  the  vegetative 
apparatus  are  more  or  less  active,  and  so  all  our  wishes  are  all 
more  or  less  active.  All  our  working  hours  we  are  aware  of 
hunger,  satiety  or  indifference,  of  a  desire  to  empty  the  intestine 
or  bladder,  or  of  a  lack  of  necessity  of  doing  so,  of  a  state  of 
tranquillity  of  the  blood-vessels  and  sweat  glands,  or  of  a  per- 
turbation of  them,  of  a  varying  tensity  of  even  the  muscles  that 
are,  as  we  say,  under  the  control  of  the  will,  of  the  state,  in 
fact,  of  all  the  elements  of  the  vegetative  complex.  The  stream 
of  feeling  which  constitutes  the  undertow  of  consciousness 
originates  outside  of  the  brain  altogether,  and  is  composed  of 
currents  arising  from  viscera,  muscles,  blood-vessels  and  glands. 

Now  the  component  currents  are  of  different  sizes  and  positions 
and  variable  degrees  of  warmth.  That  is  another  way  of  saying 
that  whether  or  not  a  current  is  to  become  the  center  of  the 
stream,  or  to  approach  it,  or  whether  it  is  to  be  hot,  cold,  or 
tepid,  depends  upon  the  degree  of  activity  of  the  various  parts 
of  the  vegetative  apparatus.     A  convenient  name  for  this  is 


106      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

tonus.  Tonus  can  be  experimentally  watched  and  measured. 
Thus  hunger,  the  most  primitive  of  the  wish-feelings,  has  been 
found  to  be  simultaneous  with  certain  characteristic  contractions 
of  the  stomach.  Stop  those  contractions,  and  you  stop  the  hunger. 
The  contractions  begin  slowly  and  weakly,  and  no  awareness  of 
them  occurs  in  the  mind.  As  they  grow  stronger,  consciousness 
becomes  a  sensation  rather  like  an  itch  somewhere  in  the  upper 
abdomen,  and  accompanied  sometimes  by  a  sense  of  general 
weakness.  The  vegetative  activity  going  on  as  a  current  almost 
on  the  outside  of  the  stream  of  feeling  has  swelled  and  warmed, 
and  so  forced  itself,  in  a  manner  of  speaking,  into  the  center  of 
the  stream.  Or  if  you  will,  the  rest  of  the  stream  has  to  arrange 
itself  around  it  as  the  center.  A  similar  mechanism  for  the  tonus 
of  the  other  members  of  the  vegetative  system,  and  how  they 
determine  consciousness  and  behaviour  is  understandable.  It  has 
been  shown  that  when  the  bladder  tone  and  the  intestinal  tone 
are  of  a  definitely  measurable  size,  one  has  the  desire  to  empty 
them.  The  same  applies  to  the  sex  glands.  The  pressure  within 
a  viscus  is  dependent  upon  the  ratio  between  the  amount  of 
contraction  of  the  involuntary  muscle  in  its  walls,  the  external 
pressure,  and  the  quantity  of  its  distending  contents,  the  internal 
pressure.  The  resultant  quotient,  the  internal  pressure  divided 
by  the  external  pressure,  measures  the  intravisceral  pressure. 
The  primitive  wish-feelings  are  the  direct  expressions  of  the 
various  intravisceral  pressures,  or  tones.  The  primitive  soul  is 
an  awareness  of  the  fused  primitive  wish-feelings  of  themselves 
as  a  whole,  and  of  the  struggle  between  them  for  recognition, 
isolation,  and,  as  we  say,  satisfaction.  This  satisfaction  consists 
in  a  degradation  of  the  highest  intravisceral  pressure  to  a  point 
at  which  some  other  intravisceral  pressure  becomes  higher  and 
therefore  predominant. 

Physics  of  the  Wish 

Mind,  consciousness,  may  then  be  portrayed  as  an  ocean  com- 
prised of  mobile  current  layers,  complexes  built  up  around  the 
awareness  of  different  intravisceral  pressures.  A  shifting  hier- 
archy of  such  pressures  form  the  points  of  focusing  of  conscious- 
ness that  result  in  conduct.  Behaviour  may  be  defined  as  the 
resultant  of  the  organism's  pressure  against  the  environment's 
counter  pressure  until  there  is  a  sufficient  reduction  of  the  specifi- 
cally exciting  intravisceral  pressure.    Just  as  water  flows  to  its 


GLANDS    AS    AN    INTERLOCKING    DIRECTORATE  107 

own  level,  so  will  conduct  flow  to  reduce  intravisceral  pressure 
to  its  own  level.  A  physics  of  the  soul  comes  into  prospect,  in 
which  a  mathematical  analysis  will  state  the  process  quanti- 
tatively in  terms  of  some  common  unit  of  pressure. 

Not  only  conduct,  but  also  character,  because  it  is  past  con- 
duct repeated,  associated,  and  fixed,  will  be  so  statable.  For 
intravisceral  tonus  or  pressure  is  not  simply  or  only  an  acute  or 
passing  affair.  There  is  for  it  a  persistent  or  average  figure,  the 
so-called  normal  for  it,  below  which  or  above  which  the  acute 
situation  will  bring  it.  Character  is  a  matter  then  of  standards 
in  the  vegetative  system.  Character,  indeed,  is  an  alloy  of  the 
different  standard  intravisceral  pressures  of  the  organism,  a 
fusion  created  by  the  resistance  or  counter  pressure  of  the  ob- 
stacles in  the  environment.  Character,  in  short,  is  the  grand 
intravisceral  barometer  of  a  personality. 

Thus  the  comfortable,  healthy,  happy,  well-balanced,  progres- 
sive, constructive,  virile  personality  is  one  in  whom  there  is  a 
continuously  harmonious  reduction  of  the  intravisceral  pressures 
in  the  environment  called  society.  For  in  a  gregarious  creature, 
like  man,  fellow  beings  are  the  most  powerful  determinants  of 
negative  and  positive  vegetative  pressures.  Not  so  well  rounded 
are  other  types  existing  because  of  inferiorities  or  excesses  of  the 
standard  visceral  tone.  There  is,  for  instance,  the  sexually  cold 
type,  comfortable  by  creating  for  itself  an  anaphrodisiac  en- 
vironment composed  of  pressures  that  can  be  fitted  into  its  own. 
Or  there  may  be  an  insufficiency  of  standard  pressure  in  the 
alimentary  tract,  and  we  have  the  ascetic,  mal-nourished,  striv- 
ing, uplifting  type.  Different  types  will  be  made  by  the  permu- 
tations and  combinations  of  factors  that  determine  the  intra- 
visceral pressure  and  the  environmental,  i.  e.,  social  resistances 
or  counter  pressures. 

Internal  Secretions  Determinants  of  Vegetative  Pressures 

Now  of  all  the  different  factors  which  determine  the  tones,  that 
is  to  say,  the  internal  pressures,  of  the  various  parts  of  the  vege- 
tative apparatus  (including  all  structures  not  controlled  by  the 
will  in  the  term),  the  internal  secretions  or  hormones  are  by 
far  the  most  important.  This  significance  is  conferred  upon  them 
because  it  is  by  their  activities  primarily  that  these  pressures 
are  produced,  regulated,  lowered  and  heightened;  in  short,  con- 
trolled.    We  have  seen  how  the  thyroid  and  adrenal  hold  the 


108      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

reins  of  the  drive  or  check  systems  in  the  vegetative  apparatus. 
Together  with  the  other  ductless  glands,  they  decide  the  advance 
or  halt,  forward  or  retreat,  tension  or  relaxation,  charge  and  dis- 
charge, of  the  visceral — involuntary  muscle — blood  vessel  com- 
bination which  is  at  the  core  of  life.  Here  again  they  emerge  as 
the  directorate. 

Carlson,  the  Chicago  physiologist,  who  probably  knows  more 
about  being  hungry  than  any  other  man  on  the  planet,  once 
demonstrated  that  the  injection  of  an  ounce  or  two  of  the  blood, 
which  means  the  internal  secretion  mixture,  of  a  starving  animal, 
into  one  not  starving  increased  the  signs  of  hunger  and  the  ac- 
companying hunger  contractions  of  the  stomach.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  hunger  is  the  expression  of  a  certain  specific  con- 
centration of  internal  secretion  or  secretions  in  the  blood.  When 
the  quantity,  in  the  cycles  of  metabolism,  becomes  sufficiently 
great,  it  stimulates  the  stomach  to  contract  in  a  way  which 
augments  the  pressure  within  it  to  a  point  at  which  the  feeling 
of  hungriness,  and  the  wish  to  satisfy  it,  or  to  get  rid  of  it, 
becomes  imperative,  and  the  dominant  of  consciousness. 

Without  doubt  the  sexual  cravings  are  likewise  so  determined. 
Sex  libido  is  an  expression  of  a  certain  concentration,  a  definite 
amount  peculiar  to  the  individual,  of  the  substance  manufac- 
tured by  the  interstitial  cells,  circulating  in  the  blood.  It  arouses 
its  effects  probably  by  (1)  increasing  the  amount  of  reproductive 
material  in  the  sex  glands  in  a  direct  chemically  stimulating 
effect  upon  the  germinative  cells,  and  so  raising  the  internal 
pressure  within  them,  (2)  stimulating  the  involuntary  muscles 
within  the  walls  and  the  canals  of  the  sex  glands,  and  so,  by 
augmenting  the  tenseness  of  the  muscles,  elevating  the  total  intra- 
visceral  pressure,  (3)  by  a  direct  chemical  and  indirect  nervous 
effect  upon  the  brain,  the  muscles,  the  heart,  as  well  as  the 
other  glands  of  internal  secretion  stimulating  the  organism  as 
a  whole.  Though  the  isolation  in  pure  form  of  the  substance  or 
substances  involved  has  never  been  scientifically  achieved,  their 
inference  is  entirely  justified.  It  is  indeed  the  only  compre- 
hensible mechanism  conceivable  that  will  fit  all  the  known  facts 
about  the  matter.  And  even  though  the  assertions  of  Brown- 
Sequard  were  only  the  exaggerations  of  a  semi-charlatan,  it  is 
certain  that  some  day  in  the  near  future  the  particular  sub- 
stance, that  he  claimed  he  had  discovered,  will  be  handed  about 
in  bottles  for  the  inspection  of  the  curious. 

Besides  thyroxin,  adrenalin,  and  the  libido-producing  secre- 


GLANDS   AS    AN    INTERLOCKING    DIRECTORATE  109 

tion  of  the  interstitial  cells,  the  substance  produced  by  the  paired 
glandlets,  situated  behind  the  thyroid,  the  parathyroids,  have  a 
profound  influence  upon  the  vegetative  apparatus  and  the  vege- 
tative nervous  system.  These  direct  the  lime  exchanges  within 
the  cells  of  the  organisms,  including  the  nerve  cells.  It  has 
been  shown  that  lime  is,  relatively,  a  sedative  to  cells.  It  raises 
the  threshold  or  strength  of  stimulus  necessary  to  evoke  a  reac- 
tion. Removing  the  parathyroids  means  removing  the  lime 
barrier,  for  with  their  deficiency  there  is  a  change  in,  and  then 
an  escape,  from  the  blood,  of  the  lime,  by  way  of  the  kidneys. 
The  result  is  sometimes  an  enormous  increase  in  the  excitability 
of  all  the  cells,  and  especially  of  the  vegetative  apparatus.  What 
that  means  for  the  individual  whose  comfort  depends  upon  a 
stability  of  the  intravisceral  tones  and  pressures  may  be  readily 
imagined. 

The  pancreas  likewise  acts  as  a  sedative  to  the  vegetative 
apparatus.  In  particular,  this  applies  to  the  sugar  mechanism  in 
the  liver  under  the  discipline  of  the  check  and  drive  organiza- 
tion. The  adrenal  and  the  pancreas  are  the  direct  antagonists 
in  the  struggle  for  control  of  sugar.  Removal  of  the  adrenals 
will  cause  a  decrease  in  the  amount  of  sugar  in  the  blood,  while 
removal  of  the  pancreas  will  produce  an  increase.  Excess  of 
sugar  in  the  blood  may  thus  be  concomitant  with  changes  of 
character  considered  incorrigible. 

In  different  locales  of  the  vegetative  apparatus,  as  indeed  of 
the  body  in  general,  the  directorate  seems  to  be  handed  over  to 
a  committee  of  control,  generally  made  up  of  two  members  work- 
ing in  opposing  directions.  Such  a  division  of  power  in  the  gen- 
eral directorate  is  analogous  to  the  small  holding  corporations 
which  divide  functions  in,  for  example,  the  United  States  Steel 
Corporation.  The  relative  ratios  of  tonus  in  these  smaller 
internal  secretion  balances  are  of  the  utmost  significance  as 
causes  of  differences  in  the  vegetative  apparatus,  which  are  the 
basis  of  differences  in  structure,  power,  and  character  between 
individuals. 

The  General  Laws  of  the  Directorate 

Our  knowledge  of  the  glands  of  internal  secretions  as  an  inter- 
locking directorate  presiding  over  all  the  functions  of  the  organ- 
ism is  still  exceedingly  meagre.  As  yet,  we  seem  to  be  knocking 
at  the  portals  of  the  chemistry  of  the  imponderable.    There  are 


110     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

holes  in  the  bronze  doors,  and  we  glimpse  the  unfathomable  dis- 
tances of  unexplored  regions.  But  we  do  see  something,  and  we 
do  glimpse  a  beginning.  Already  the  outlines  of  a  differential 
anatomy,  and  a  different  physiology  and  a  differential  psy- 
chology, which  will  explain  to  us  the  unique  in  the  constitution, 
the  temperament  and  character  of  an  individual,  emerge.  It  is 
worth  while,  before  proceeding  to  the  details,  so  valuable  to  a 
society  which  would  become  rational,  to  summarize  the  general 
principles  emerging,  expressing  the  directing  powers  of  the  duct- 
less glands  over  the  individual.  They  may  be  regarded  as  the 
present  postulates  of  a  new  science  of  the  whys  and  wherefores 
separating  and  setting  apart,  as  so  recognizably  distinct,  those 
peregrinating  chemical  mixtures:  men  and  women. 

1.  The  life  of  every  individual,  in  every  stage,  is  dominated 
largely  by  his  glands  of  internal  secretion.  That  is,  they,  as  a 
complex  internal  messenger  and  director  system,  control  organ 
and  function,  conduct  and  character.  The  orderliness  of  human 
life,  in  the  sequential  march  of  its  episodes,  crises,  successes  and 
failures,  depends,  to  a  large  extent,  upon  their  interactions  with 
each  other  and  with  the  environment. 

2.  One  or  several  of  the  glands  possesses  a  controlling  or 
superior  influence  above  that  of  the  others  in  the  physiology 
of  the  individual  and  so  becomes  the  central  gland  of  his  life, 
its  dominant,  indeed,  so  far  as  it  casts  a  deciding  vote  or  veto, 
in  its  everyday  existence  and  incidents  as  well  as  in  its  high 
points,  the  climaxes  and  emergencies. 

3.  These  glandular  preponderances  are  at  the  basis  of  per- 
sonality, creating  genius  and  dullard,  weakling  and  giant, 
Cavalier  and  Puritan.  All  human  traits  may  be  analyzed  in 
terms  of  them  because  they  are  expressions  of  them. 

4.  Specific  types  of  personality  may  be  directly  associated 
with  particular  glandular  prominences,  so  that  we  have  the 
thyroid-centered  types,  the  pituitary-centered  types,  the  adrenal- 
centered  types,  etc.  These  are  the  classic  Three,  the  prototypes  in 
their  purity  most  easily  described  and  recognized. 

5.  Combinations  of  these,  as  well  as  of  other  glands — with 
joint  predominance — occur  and  indeed  form  the  majority  of 
populations.  The  phenomena  of  varieties  in  species  are  thus 
explained. 

6.  Internal  secretion  traits  are  inherited,  and  variations  in 
heredity  are  essentially  the  structural  representation  of  the  re- 
sultant of  a  parallelogram  of  forces  exerted  by   each  of  the 


GLANDS    AS    AN    INTERLOCKING    DIRECTORATE  111 


parental  prepotent  glands.  If  they  are  of  the  same  type,  they 
may  reinforce  each  other:  if  not,  inhibitions  and  compensations 
will  come  into  play.    Mendelian  laws  may  apply. 

7.  The  process  of  evolution,  as  the  play  of  natural  selection 
upon  these  variations,  becomes  comprehensible  from  a  new  stand- 
point. 

8.  Certain  diseases,  and  disease  tendencies,  both  acute  and 
constitutional,  as  well  as  traits  of  temperament  and  character, 
and  predetermined  reactions  to  certain  recurring  situations  in 
life,  are  rooted  in  the  glandular  soils  that  compose  the  stuff  of 
the  individual. 

9.  The  subconscious,  of  which  the  vegetative  apparatus  is 
the  physical  basis,  leads  back  to  the  internal  secretions  for  the 
profoundest  springs  of  its  secrets.    We  shall  see  how  and  why. 

10.  Given  the  internal  secretory  composition,  so  to  speak,  of 
an  individual — his  endocrine  formula — and  so  his  intravisceral 
pressures,  one  may  predict,  within  limits,  his  physical  and  psychic 
make-up,  the  general  lines  of  his  life,  diseases,  tastes,  idiosyn- 
crasies and  habits. 

11.  Within  limits,  if  the  previous  history  of  an  individual  is 
known,  his  physical  appearance  may  be  approximately  described, 
and  his  future  outlined. 

12.  Conversely,  given  the  physical  and  psychic  composition 
of  an  individual,  and  his  past  history,  one  may  deduce  the  in- 
ternal secretion  type  to  which  he  belongs. 


Examples: 


A.  One  Thyroid-centered  Type  has 


B.  One  Pituitary-centered  Type 


Bright  eyes 
Good  clean  teeth 
Symmetrical  features 
Moist  flushed  skin 
Temperamental  attitude 

toward  life 
Tendency  to  heart,  in- 
testinal   and   nervous 
disease 

Abnormally      large     or 

small  size 
Musical — acute  sense  of 

rhythm 
Asymmetrical  features 
Tendency   to   cyclic   or 

periodic  diseases 


112      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 


C.  One  Adrenal-centered  Type 


'Hairy- 
Dark 

Masculinity  marked 
Tendency  to  diphtheria 
and  hernia 


These  are  some  of  the  master  types.  They  have  their  variants 
depending  upon  the  influences  of  the  other  glands,  especially  the 
interstitial  cells  of  the  sex  glands. 

Ante-Natal  Development 

In  their  ensemble,  the  glands  of  internal  secretion  wield  a  de- 
termining influence  upon  the  development  of  the  individual  from 
his  very  inception.  If  his  various  powers  may  be  conceived  of 
as  an  orchestra,  they  may  be  said  to  conduct  it  from  the  very 
beginning  of  its  movements,  and  to  cease  only  with  its  termina- 
tion. From  the  moment  when  the  spermatozoon  penetrates  and 
fecundates  the  ovum,  the  fate  of  the  future  being  is  settled  by 
their  disposition.  The  seal  of  his  destiny  is  soaked  with  their 
substance. 

Post-Natal  Development 

Every  particle  of  protoplasm,  every  granule  of  the  impreg- 
nated ovum  carries  the  representatives  of  the  parental  ductless 
glands.  As  a  consequence,  they  transmit  chemically,  with  no 
figure  of  speech  involved,  the  peculiar  familial,  racial  and 
national  characters  from  progenitors  to  offspring.  They  confer 
upon  the  child  a  number  of  the  properties  commonly  recognized 
as  inherited.  All  those  features  which  distinguish  Caucasian 
from  Mongolian,  Scandinavian  from  Italian,  Italian  from  Jew 
are  determined  by  them. 

In  short,  at  every  step  of  his  life,  in  every  relation  and  asso- 
ciation, in  every  expression  of  the  inner  forces  that  control  his 
being,  the  normal  individual  is  influenced  by  his  internal  secre- 
tions.   Let  us  now  see  how. 


CHAPTER  V 
HOW  THE  GLANDS  INFLUENCE  THE  NORMAL  BODY 

The  origin  of  the  remarkable  differences  between  individuals 
that  distinguish  species,  varieties  and  families,  has  long  been  one 
of  the  chief  puzzles  of  biology.  It  may  indeed  be  called  the  lead- 
ing puzzle,  which  led  Darwin  on  to  the  collection  of  the  data  that 
culminated  in  the  "Origin  of  Species."  The  why  of  the  Unique 
is  the  fundamental  problem  of  those  who  would  understand  life. 

An  explanation  is  an  attempt  at  a  consistent  and  persistent, 
sometimes  an  obstinate  clarity  of  mind.  A  vast  number  of  ob- 
servations gathered  by  laboratory  experimentalists  as  well  as  by 
those  naturalists  of  the  abnormal,  physicians  in  active  practice, 
prove  that  the  construction  of  the  individual  both  during  de- 
velopment before  maturity,  and  maintenance  during  maturity, 
his  constitution,  in  short,  is  directed  by  the  endocrine  glands. 
It  is  possible  now  to  present  an  explanation  of  the  individuality 
of  the  individual. 

To  assert  that  variation  is  responsible  for  the  individual,  that 
it  is  the  mechanism  which  isolates  him  as  a  being  like  none  other 
of  his  fellows,  not  even  his  parents,  brothers,  and  sisters,  is 
merely  to  beg  the  question.  What  is  variation?  The  internal 
secretion  theory  of  the  process  offers,  for  the  first  time,  an 
explanation  that  is  coherent  and  comprehensive,  based  upon  con- 
crete and  detailed  observations.  It  provides  an  adequate  inter- 
pretation of  the  numberless  hereditary  gradations  and  transi- 
tions, blendings  and  mixtures.  It  suggests  a  control  of  heredity 
in  the  future. 

The  Pure  Types 

In  the  pure  types,  only  one  gland,  either  by  being  present  in 
great  excess  above  the  average,  or  by  being  pretty  well  below 
the  average,  comes  to  exercise  the  dominating  influence  upon  the 
traits  of  the  organism.  As  the  strongest  link  in  the  chain,  or  as 
the  weakest,  it  rules.  The  others  must  accommodate  themselves 
to  it.    Among  them  as  commanders  of  growth,  development  and 

113 


114      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

normal  function,  it  holds  the  balance  of  power.  In  every  emer- 
gency it  stands  out  by  its  strength  or  by  its  weakness.  It  thus 
creates  its  own  type  of  man  or  woman,  with  attributes  and  char- 
acteristics peculiar  to  itself.  These  pure  types,  as  we  have 
seen,  are  mainly  the  thyroid,  the  pituitary,  and  the  adrenal- 
centered. 

Each  with  the  signs  peculiar  to  it  can  be  identified  among 
the  faces  that  pass  one  in  the  street.  And  they  differ  so  mark- 
edly among  themselves  that  they  provide  a  new  and  accurate 
means  of  classifying  varieties  among  the  races  of  the  species: 
man.  The  thyroid  type  differs  as  much  from  the  adrenal  type  as 
does  a  greyhound  from  a  bull-dog.  The  greyhound  has  a  certain 
size,  form,  character  and  capacity.  The  bull-dog  has  similar 
qualities  which  are  yet  quite  different.  Each  is  built  for  a 
particular  career.  Among  human  beings,  the  pure  thyroid  type 
is  easily  distinguished  from  the  pure  adrenal  type,  and  both  of 
these  from  the  pure  pituitary  type.  Each  is  stamped  with  a 
significant  figure,  height,  skin,  hair,  temperament,  ambition, 
social  reactions  and  predisposition  to  certain  diseases. 

The  Mixed  Types 

Among  the  mixed  types,  the  lines  of  distinction  are  less  clear, 
and  so  they  are  more  difficult  to  classify.  The  mixed  types  may 
be  said  to  be  hyphenated.  In  them,  two  or  even  three  of  the  in- 
ternal secretory  glands  conflict  for  predominance.  The  combined 
action  makes  for  a  resultant  modification  in  the  primary  glandular 
markings  and  effects.  A  hyphenated  classification  thus  becomes 
inevitable.  Especially  is  this  so  if  the  two  glands  are  mutually 
antagonistic  and  inhibitory.  A  compromise  effect  is  then  neces- 
sitated. Or  an  individual  may  be  dominated  by  one  gland  at  one 
period  of  his  life  and  by  another  at  a  later  period.  One  of  the 
glands,  the  thyroid,  for  example,  will  show,  by  the  traces  it  has 
left  upon  the  earliest  developing  features,  that  it  was  in  control 
at  the  very  earliest  dates  of  his  history,  while  other  signs  will 
disclose  the  more  recent  influence  of  the  adrenal  or  of  the  pitui- 
tary. The  combination  becomes  classifiable  as  the  thyroid- 
pituitary  type,  or  as  the  thyroid-adrenal  type. 

That  the  external  features  as  well  as  the  chronic  diseases  of 
human  beings  are  controlled  by  some  common  factor  has  long 
been  suspected.  Inquiries  into  morbid  phenomena  with  a  heredi- 
tary trend  yielded  information  that  has  paved  the  way  for  the 


HOW   GLANDS   INFLUENCE   THE   NORMAL  BODY  115 

internal  secretion  theory.  It  has  long  been  known  that  certain 
diseases  effect  only  certain  individuals  of  a  definite  constitution. 
Apoplexy,  diabetes,  arteriosclerosis,  Bright's  disease,  are  met 
with  almost  exclusively  in  what  the  older  clinicians  talked  about 
as  the  apopleptic  type.  On  the  other  hand,  they  said,  anemias, 
tuberculosis,  hemophilias,  scrofulas  occurred  more  among  the 
lymphatic  type.  But  they  had  no  idea  whatever  of  the  true  func- 
tional basis  of  the  two  different  types.  The  truth  as  we  of  today 
view  it  is  that  these  two  types  represent  different  textures  of 
human  beings,  fabricated  of  different  internal  secretions.  They 
are  really  two  different  breeds  of  the  species  Homo  Sapiens. 
The  materials  being  different,  the  color  and  feel  of  them  is 
different,  and  the  resistance  to  wear  and  tear  is  different. 

Endocrine  Analysis 

The  modes  of  classification  glimpsed  at  are  certainly  exceed- 
ingly broad  and  sweeping.  It  is  well  enough  to  establish  types 
and  classes.  But  beneath  them  are  sheltered  the  infinite  possi- 
bilities of  permutations  and  combinations,  which  explain  the 
countless  variety  and  complexity  of  form  and  function.  Every 
individual  born  among  the  vertebrates,  for  example,  must  have 
a  certain  definite  amount  and  percentage  of  pituitary  gland, 
anterior  and  posterior,  pineal,  thyroid,  parathyroid,  thymus, 
adrenal,  pancreas,  interstitial  and  so  on.  Now  if,  to  state  it  in 
terms  of  percentages,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  the  pituitary  is 
25,  the  pineal  10,  the  thyroid  36,  the  parathyroids  15,  the  thymus 
29,  the  adrenals  60,  the  pancreas  49,  the  interstitials  72  (the 
gland  when  acting  maximally  to  be  graded  as  100),  we  see  at 
once  how  different  such  an  individual  must  be  from  one  who  has, 
say,  pituitary  84,  pineal  39,  thyroid  26,  parathyroid  42,  adrenals 
96,  pancreas  22  and  interstitials  89.  One  obtains  at  once  from 
the  contrasts  of  such  figures  some  idea  of  the  possibilities.  As 
each  point  plus  or  minus  must  count  to  produce  some  difference 
in  the  individual,  the  results  are  manifest.  Varying  within  the 
numerical  limits  imposed  by  genus,  species,  variety  and  family 
(which  limits  are  probably  responsible  for  the  persistence  of  the 
particular  genus,  species,  variety,  or  family)  the  individual  be- 
comes an  individual  because  of  the  relative  values  of  the  per- 
centages in  his  blood  and  tissues  of  these  different  internal  secre- 
tions. We  thus  begin  to  gain  an  insight  into  the  patterns  accord- 
ing to  which  men,  women  and  animals  are  woven. 


116      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

We  are,  as  yet,  far  from  an  exact  endocrine  analysis  of  the 
individual.  But  we  know  that  the  endocrines  rule  over  growth 
and  nutrition,  a  vast  dominion  which  incorporates  every  organ 
and  every  tissue.  By  enhancing  or  retarding  the  nutritional 
changes,  the  growth  of  the  organ  or  tissue  is  favored  or  re- 
stricted. The  size  and  shape  of  an  individual,  as  a  whole,  sll  well 
as  of  the  specialized  cell  masses  composing  him,  as  hands  and 
feet,  the  nose  and  ears,  and  so  on,  are  therefore  controlled  by 
them.  Whether  an  organism  is  to  be  tall  or  short,  lean  or  corpu- 
lent, graceful  or  awkward,  is  decided  by  their  interactions. 
These,  like  human  covenants,  vary  with  the  different  reactions  of 
the  parties  to  the  contract.  And  so  a  great  deal  depends  upon 
whether  they  work  harmoniously  or  discordantly,  and  upon 
which  does  the  most  work  and  which  the  least. 

Undersecretion  and  Oversecretion 

It  is  when  a  gland,  either  in  the  course  of  development,  or  be- 
cause of  the  influence  of  starvation,  shock,  injury,  poisoning  or 
infection,  begins  to  undersecrete  or  oversecrete  that  its  effects 
upon  growth  and  nutrition  become  grossly  manifest.  A  veritable 
transfiguration  of  the  individual  may  occur,  the  black  magic  of 
which  may  perplex  him  for  a  lifetime.  A  man,  made  eunuchoid 
by  an  accident  or  by  mumps,  will  observe  in  himself  astonishing 
changes  in  his  constitutional  make-up,  mentality  and  sexuality. 
He  would  be  more  astounded  to  learn  that  beneath  the  appear- 
ances, the  changes,  so  alarming  him,  there  are  profound  altera- 
tions in  the  rate  at  which  he  is  taking  in  oxygen,  burning  up 
sugar,  accumulating  carbon  dioxide  and  excreting  waste  by- 
products through  the  kidneys,  which  are  responsible  for  them. 

The  differences  between  the  normal  and  abnormal  are  only  a 
matter  of  degree.  And  so,  to  be  sure,  are  differences  between 
types.  But  it  is  hard  to  realize  that  the  striking  distinctions 
between  the  thyroid  type  and  the  pituitary,  comparable,  as  said, 
to  the  differences  between  a  greyhound  and  a  bull-dog,  are  de- 
pendent solely  upon  quantitative  variations  in  the  general  and 
local  speeds  of  metabolism,  among  the  cells. 

Division  of  Labor 

Besides  the  antagonisms  and  co-operations  between  them,  there 
are  certain  lines  along  which  the  glands,  in  their  effects,  special- 


HOW   GLANDS   INFLUENCE   THE   NORMAL   BODY  117 

ize.  The  thyroid,  for  instance,  is  concerned  specially  with  the 
regulation  of  the  shape,  form  and  finish  of  an  organ.  The  pitui- 
tary shines  at  the  periods  of  developmental  crises,  determining 
them  and  modifying  them.  It  exerts  the  greatest  influence  upon 
the  time  of  eruption  of  the  teeth,  both  the  temporary  and  the 
permanent,  the  onset  of  puberty,  the  recurrence  of  menstruation 
in  women,  and  the  time  of  occurrence  of  labor.  The  interstitial 
glands  distribute  the  basis  of  the  powers  and  limitations  of  mas- 
culinity and  femininity.  Abnormalities  of  these  glands  also 
affect  the  individual  all  along  the  line,  in  all  of  his  aspects.  So 
affected  he  may  apparently  change  into  a  wholly  different  being. 
He  may  change  in  size,  in  the  shape  of  his  head,  feet  and  hands, 
as  well  as  in  his  habits,  aptitudes  and  dispositions.  So  he  may 
find  it  necessary  to  purchase  an  entirely  different  size  of  hat, 
more  commodious  clothes,  and  newly  fitting  gloves  and  shoes. 
At  the  same  time,  his  family,  relatives  and  friends,  discover  that 
the  erstwhile  generous,  frank,  neat  and  punctual  and  liked,  has 
become  stingy  and  suspicious  and  slovenly  and  hated.  And  all 
because  a  gland  has  begun  to  undersecrete  or  to  oversecrete. 
The  transformation  will  be  slight  or  marked,  depending  entirely 
upon  the  extent  of  impairment,  positive  or  negative,  of  the  gland 
involved. 

But  it  is  not  only  in  the  shaping  of  the  normal  individual's 
architecture  that  the  internal  secretions  dominate.  Over  that 
subtle  something  known  in  all  languages  as  vitality,  expressive 
of  the  intensity  of  feeling,  thought  and  reactions  in  cells,  they 
rule  supreme.  Gay  vivacity  and  grim  determination,  the  tem- 
perament of  a  Louis  XIV,  and  the  soul  of  a  Cromwell,  are  the 
crystallizations  of  these  chemical  substances  acting  upon  the 
brain. 

Internal  Secretion  Varieties 

There  is  no  better  way  of  illustrating  the  influence  of  the 
internal  secretions  upon  the  normal  than  the  analysis  of  the 
variation  of  traits  with  variations  in  glandular  predominances. 
The  general  build  of  an  individual,  his  skeletal  type,  the  pro- 
portion between  the  size  of  his  arms  and  that  of  his  legs,  as  well 
as  that  between  his  trunk  and  his  lower  extremities,  whether  he 
is  to  be  tall,  lanky  and  loutish,  or  short,  squat  and  dumpy,  are 
to  be  considered.  Different  facial  types  are  the  expressions  of 
underlying  endocrine  differences.     The  head  and  skull  offer  a 


118      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

number  of  clues  to  the  controlling  secretions  in  the  blood  and 
tissues.  Whether  the  forehead  is  to  be  broad  or  narrow,  the 
distance  between  the  eyes,  the  character  of  the  eyebrows,  the 
shape  and  size  and  appearance  of  the  eyes  themselves,  the  mould 
of  the  nose  and  jaws  and  the  peculiarities  of  the  teeth,  are  all  so 
determined.  The  skin,  in  its  color,  texture,  the  quantity  and  dis- 
tribution of  its  fatty  and  other  constituents,  eruptions  and 
weather  reactions,  is  influenced.  Also  the  mucous  membranes, 
the  color  and  lustre  and  structure  of  the  hair,  as  well  as  its 
general  distribution  and  development,  are  hieroglyphics  of  the 
endocrine  processes  below  the  surface.  Whether  the  muscles  are 
massive  or  sparse,  atrophied  or  hypertrophied,  soft  or  hard, 
easily  fatigable  or  not,  bespeak  conditions  in  the  glandular  chain. 
In  short,  we  must  regard  the  individual  as  an  immensely  compli- 
cated pattern  of  designs  traced  by  the  hormones  as  the  primary 
etchers  of  his  development.  Though  it  must  be  admitted  that 
the  number  of  unknown  and  unsolved  relations  in  the  pattern  are 
still  enormously  great,  enough  has  been  established  to  make 
possible  a  rough  working  analysis  of  the  particular,  unique 
organism  placed  before  us  for  examination  as  Mr.  Smith,  Mrs. 
Jones,  or  Miss  Smith^Jones. 

What  Is  the  Normal? 

Anthropologists,  from  the  beginning  of  anthropology,  have 
battled  in  vain  for  a  satisfactory  inclusive  definition,  or,  at  least, 
description  of  the  normal.  With  the  introduction  of  the  biometric 
method,  the  goal  at  last  appeared  within  sight.  A  cocked  hat 
curve  expressing  the  distribution  and  range  of  the  normal  looks 
formidable.  The  attainable  turned  out  a  mirage,  for  the  curves 
constructable  by  the  measurement  of  traits  of  a  population  only 
proved  the  truth  of  the  old  axiom  that  all  transitions  and  varia- 
tions between  extremes  exist.  The  Problem  of  the  Normal 
seemed  more  elusive  than  ever.  And  the  best  that  could  be  done 
for  the  elucidation  of  its  mystery,  was  to  apply  and  observe  the 
law  of  averages. 

From  the  endocrine  standpoint,  the  reason  for  this  becomes 
clear.  The  biometric  method  concerned  itself  with  externals, 
with,  as  it  were,  symptoms.  Since  these  external  signs  are  but 
manifestations  of  the  inner  chemical  reactions,  of  which  the 
internal  secretions  are  the  determining  reagents,  or  factors,  with 
permutations   and  combinations  possible  in  all  directions,  the 


HOW   GLANDS   INFLUENCE   THE   NORMAL   BODY  119 

diversity  and  variability  of  each  individual  and  his  traits  stands 
explained  and  understandable.  The  normal,  as  the  perfect  or 
nearly  perfect  balance  of  forces  in  the  organism,  at  any  given 
moment,  emerges  as  a  more  definite  and  real  concept  than  that 
which  would  abstract  it  from  a  curve  of  variations.  Moreover, 
since  the  directive  forces  within  the  organism  are  pre-eminently 
the  internal  secretions,  the  normal  becomes  definable  as  their 
harmonious  balancing  or  equilibrium,  a  state  which  tends  not  to 
undo  (as  the  abnormal  does)  but  to  prolong  itself. 

The  potential  combinations  and  compensations,  antagonisms 
and  counteractions,  attainable  within  the  endocrine  glands  as  an 
interlocking  directorate,  point  the  cause  for  the  elusive  quality 
of  the  normal.  Tall  men  and  short  men,  blonde  women  and 
dumpy  women,  lanky  hatchet-faced  people,  stout  moon-faced 
people,  Falstaff  and  Queen  Elizabeth,  George  Washington  and 
Abraham  Lincoln,  Disraeli  and  Walt  Whitman,  Caesar  and 
Alexander,  as  well  as  Mr.  Smith  and  Miss  Jones  come  within 
the  range  of  the  normal.  There  are  all  kinds  and  conditions 
and  sorts  of  men  and  women,  and  all  kinds  and  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  the  normal,  because  an  incalculable  number  of  har- 
monious relations  and  interactions  between  the  endocrines  are 
possible,  and  do  actually  occur.  The  standard  of  the  normal 
must  obviously  not  be  a  single  standard,  but  a  series  of  stand- 
ards, depending  upon  which  glands  predominate,  and  how  the 
others  adapt  themselves  to  its  predominance.  Adrenal-centered 
types,  thyroid-centered  types,  pituitary-centered  types,  thymus- 
centered  types,  as  well  as  hyphenated  compounds  of  these,  such 
as  the  pituitary-adrenal  types,  exist  as  normals.  They  can  be 
conceived  of  as  normal  types  because  they  exist  as  normal  types. 

The  Skeletal  Types 

Now  men,  for  as  long  as  we  have  any  knowledge  of  their 
thoughts  and  classifications  and  attitudes,  have  been  accustomed 
to  first  think  of  one  another,  to  classify  and  size  one  another 
as  tall  or  short,  slender  or  broad,  thin  or  corpulent.  The  bio- 
logical necessity,  indeed,  instinct  of  the  one  animal  to  relate 
the  other  animal  to  aggressive  or  harmless  agencies  in  his  sur- 
roundings, accounts  for  this.  Relatively,  of  course,  for  all  these 
modes  of  description  imply  offensive  or  defensive  possibilities  of 
the  stimulus  for  the  recorder  in  relation  to  himself.  The  interest 
in  stature  is  fundamental,  and  has  persisted  in  the  most  civilized 


120     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

nations.  The  relationship  of  height  and  weight,  as  well  as  of 
length  and  breadth,  to  other  physical  traits,  have  formed  the 
subject  of  scientific  study.  There  is,  for  instance,  the  classifi- 
cation of  Bean,  who  divided  mankind  generally  into  two  types, 
those  of  a  medium  size,  stocky  long  legs  and  arms,  large  hands 
and  feet,  short  trunk,  and  face  large  in  comparison  to  the  head 
(the  meso-onto-morphs)  and  those  who  were  either  tall  and 
slender,  or  small  and  delicate,  with  the  smaller  face,  eyes  close 
together,  long,  high,  narrow  nose,  and  trunk  longer  as  compared 
with  the  extremities  (the  hyper-onto-morphs) .  Bean  showed, 
too,  that  the  hypers  (to  use  a  short  word  to  contrast  with  the 
mesos)  were  present  to  the  extent  of  almost  a  hundred  per  cent 
in  a  series  of  tuberculosis,  and  about  ninety  per  cent  in  a  series 
of  central  nervous  system  disease.  All  of  which  is  exceedingly 
interesting  and  suggestive,  but  throws  no  light  upon  the  under- 
lying mechanisms  of  statures. 

Stature  and  Growth 

Stature  is  essentially  determined  by  the  growth  of  the  long 
bones.  They  are  the  pace-makers,  and  the  muscles  and  soft 
tissues  follow  the  pace  they  set.  Now  the  primary  determinant, 
catalyst  or  sensitizer  of  the  growth  of  the  long  bones  is  the 
anterior  pituitary.  All  statures  should  therefore  be  first  scruti- 
nized from  the  point  of  view  of  the  pituitary.  Individuals  over 
six  feet  tall  or  under  five  feet  five  inches  should  be  looked  upon 
as  having  a  pituitary  trend.  This  pituitary  trend  may  be  pri- 
mary, due  to  its  own  undergrowth  or  overgrowth,  or  it  may  be 
due  to  lack  of  inhibition  from  the  sex  glands  such  as  occurs  in 
eunuchs  and  eunuchoids,  or  excessive  or  premature  inhibition 
from  them  as  happens  in  certain  salacious  dwarfs. 

The  long  bones  grow  at  a  point  of  junction  between  the  bone 
proper  and  an  overlying  layer  of  gristle  or  cartilage,  known  as 
the  zone  of  ossification.  It  is  upon  this  zone  of  ossification  that 
the  various  growth  influences  appear  to  focus  and  concentrate 
their  efforts,  among  them  the  internal  secretions.  After  growth 
has  been  finished,  that  is,  after  adolescence,  these  zones  of  ossifi- 
cation close,  so  that  growth  is  no  longer  possible  unless  they 
become  reactivated.  Upon  the  zone  of  ossification  must  act  the 
pituitary,  and  indirectly  the  thyroid,  the  interstitial  cells,  the 
thymus  and  the  adrenals.  Individuals  oversized  or  undersized 
either  belong  to  the  pituitary  type,  or  if  hyphenated,  have  the 


HOW   GLANDS   INFLUENCE   THE   NORMAL  BODY  121 

pituitary  as  one  of  the  dominants  in  their  composition.  The 
necessities  of  child-bearing  determine  a  greater  angle  between 
trunk  and  lower  extremities  in  the  female.  Underactivity  of 
the  pituitary,  for  instance,  will  prevent  the  development  of  the 
normal  angle.  The  ratio  in  length  of  the  upper  limbs  to  the 
lower  is  a  fairly  constant  relationship  for  each  sex  normally. 
Deviations  occur  with  a  break  somewhere  in  the  chain  of  co- 
operation of  the  internal  secretions  controlling  the  growth  of 
bone. 

Hands,  Fingers  and  Toes 

The  size  and  shape  and  general  configuration  of  the  hands, 
fingers  and  toes  are  details  that  tell  an  endocrine  tale.  Students 
of  hands  naturally  have  grouped  them  as  the  long  slender  and 
the  short,  broad,  the  bony  and  the  well-filled  out,  the  tapering 
fingers  and  the  stumpy.  The  character  of  a  hand  is  determined 
anatomically  by  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  bones,  the  amount 
and  distribution  of  fat,  and  the  thickness  and  elasticity  of  the 
skin.  Over  these,  the  essential  control  lies  in  the  pituitary  and 
the  thyroid.  So  we  find  that  pituitary  types  have,  when  there  is 
oversecretion,  large  bony,  gross  hands,  spade-shaped,  or  when 
there  is  undersecretion,  hands  that  are  plump,  with  peculiarly 
tapering  fleshy  fingers.  The  hyperthyroid  has  long  slender 
fingers,  the  subthyroid  pudgy,  coarse,  ugly  foreshortened  hands, 
often  cold,  and  bluish. 

Facial  Types 

An  artist  will  see  in  a  face  the  past  history  of  generations,  a 
narrative  of  the  adventures  of  the  blood,  a  record  of  tears  and 
smiles,  wrinkles  and  dimples,  the  victories  and  defeats  of  buried 
drudgery  and  romance.  These  signatures  which  the  Faculty  of 
Life  have  scribbled  or  engraved  over  it  as  upon  a  diploma,  be- 
speak for  him  spiritual  moments.  To  the  student  of  the  internal 
secretions  the  lines,  expressions,  attitudes  are  important  for  they 
tell  of  the  state  of  tensions  and  strains  in  the  vegetative  appa- 
ratus with  which  they  are  inseparably  connected.  It  is  when  one 
comes  to  the  consideration  of  the  face  as  a  complex  of  brows, 
eyes,  nose,  lips  and  jaws  that  he  becomes  most  interested.  For 
in  the  modeling  and  tone  of  every  one  of  the  features  each  of  the 
endocrine  glands  has  something  to  say.     In  consequence  there 


122     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

has  been  discribed  the  hyperpituitary  face,  and  the  hyperthyroid 
face,  the  subthyroid  face  and  the  subpituitary  face,  the  adrenal 
face,  the  eunuchoid  face  and  the  ovarian  face  and  also  the 
thymic. 

To  bring  to  mind  an  immediate  complete  image  of  the  hyper- 
thyroid face,  one  should  think  of  Shelley.  The  oval  shape  of  it, 
with  the  delicate  modeling  of  all  the  features,  the  wide,  high 
brow,  the  large,  vivacious,  prominent  eyes  with  the  glint  of  a 
divine  fire  in  them  and  the  sensitive  lips  all  belong  to  the  classi- 
cal picture.  Generally  flushed  over  the  cheek-bones,  there  is 
undoubtedly  a  certain  effeminate  effect  associated  with  it.  At 
least,  it  is  the  least  animal  and  brutish  of  the  faces  of  man. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  subthyroid  face  is  that  of  the  cretin 
and  cretinoid  idiot,  in  a  mild  degree.  So  characteristic  that  we 
recognize  the  portrait  in  the  descriptions  of  Pliny  in  early  Roman 
times  and  of  Marco  Polo  in  his  Asiatic  travels.  Coarseness,  dull- 
ness, pudginess  are  its  keynotes.  Irregular  features,  tendency  to 
wide  separation  of  the  eyes  and  pug  nose,  sallow,  puffy  com- 
plexion, waxy  thickened  nose  and  eyelids,  deep-set,  listless,  lack- 
lustre eyebrows,  and  thick  prominent  lips  comprise  the  catalogue 
of  the  physiognomy.  On  the  whole,  the  sort  of  face  one  passes 
in  the  street  as  stupid  and  common.  But  there  are  a  number 
of  fascinating  and  marvelous  varieties  of  the  stupid  and  common. 

The  adrenal  face  is  most  often  dark  or  freckled.    It  tends  to 
be   irregularly   broadish.    It   is  hairy,   one   is   struck   forcibly. 
There  is  a  low  hair  line,  which  makes  the  brow  appear  rather  , 
low,  and  there  is  a  good  deal  of  hair  over  the  cheek  bones.    The 
adrenal  type  is  round  headed. 

The  face  of  the  hyperpituitary  is  striking  and  pretty  sharply 
defined.  It  is  long  and  narrow,  with  a  tendency  to  prominence 
of  the  bony  parts.  Square,  protruding  jaw,  high,  thin,  straight 
nose,  emphasized  eyebrows,  and  marked  cheek-bones,  comprise 
the  leading  points  in  its  composition.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
subpituitary  is  more  rounded  and  trends  toward  the  full  moon 
effect,  the  chin  recedes,  the  cheek-bones  are  buried  under  fat,  the 
nose  spreads  more  and  is  flatter.  In  its  general  expression,  there 
is  a  complacence  and  tranquillity  which  is  often  mistaken  for 
sleepiness,  and  often  actually  is  dullness. 

The  eunuchoid  face  is  usually  fat  with  puffy  eyelids.  The 
skin  is  smooth  and  cool,  marble-like  often,  poor  in  pigment  and 
color.  Sometimes  it  is  sallow,  wrinkled  and  senile  in  a  man  in  his 
early  twenties.    At  others,  it  is  distinctly  feminine  in  its  hair- 


HOW  GLANDS   INFLUENCE   THE   NORMAL   BODY  123 

lessness,  and  the  delicate  texture  of  the  skin,  as  well  as  in  the 
clean-cut  patterning  of  the  features.  Every  gradient  between 
premature  senility  and  sex  inversion  is  encountered. 

The  thymic  face  frequently  stamps  its  possessor  at  sight.  Its 
owner  has  a  smooth,  soft  skin,  with  little  or  no  hair,  and  a  dead 
white  or  "peaches-and-cream"  complexion.  One  wonders,  when 
unacquainted  with  the  type,  who  the  man's  barber  is,  or  where 
he  learned  to  shave  himself  so  well.  It  may  be  curiously  velvety 
to  the  touch  and  swept  by  a  faint  sheen.  Among  children  occur 
the  most  exquisite  samples  of  the  kind  designated  as  the  angelic 
child.  The  face  is  finely  moulded  and  beautifully  proportioned, 
features  artistically  chiselled,  eyes  blue  or  brown  with  long 
[ashes,  cheeks  transparent  with  rapid,  fleeting  variations  in  color- 
ing, thin  lips,  and  oval  chin.  In  the  adult,  the  chin  is  receding, 
and  the  mouth  seems  underdeveloped  in  one  variety. 

The  Teeth 

As  closely  connected  with  the  internal  secretions  as  are  the 
bones  of  the  face  and  the  skull  are  the  teeth.  Tooth  formation 
is  essentially  a  modified  bone  formation.  And  as  the  bones  of 
the  face  are  influenced,  so  are  the  teeth  influenced.  But  as  each 
tooth  is  a  miniature  organ,  inspectable  by  the  eye  as  a  unit,  the 
action  of  the  ductless  glands  is  more  obviously  reflected  for  the 
observer  to  read.  By  their  teeth  shall  ye  know  them.  Upon  the 
whole  history  of  the  evolution  of  each  tooth,  in  the  growth  of  the 
dental  follicle  and  its  walls,  the  fruition  of  the  dentinal  germ, 
the  making  of  the  enamel  organ,  the  dental  pulp,  the  cementum 
and  the  peridental  membrane,  the  endocrines  leave  their  mark. 

There  are  certain  general  statements  about  the  teeth  and  the 
internal  secretions  that  can  be  made.  The  teeth  of  the  thyroid 
types  are  pearly,  glistening,  small  and  regular;  in  other  words, 
the  teeth  to  which  poets  have  devoted  sonnets.  The  pituitary 
types  have  teeth  that  are  large  and  square  and  irregular,  with 
prominence  of  the  middle  incisors,  and  a  marked  separation  or 
crowding  of  them.  The  interstitial  types  have  small  irregular 
upper  teeth,  with  turned,  stumpy  or  missing  lateral  incisors. 
The  thymus  types  have  youthful,  milky  white  teeth  that  are 
thin  and  translucent,  and  scalloped  or  crescentic  at  the  grinding 
edge.  The  teeth  of  the  adrenal  type  arc  all  well-developed,  tend 
to  have  a  yellowish  color,  with  a  reddish  tinge  to  the  grinding 
surfaces. 


124     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

The  degree  and  regularity  of  development  of  the  middle  upper 
cutting,  biting  teeth,  as  distinguished  from  the  grinding  molars, 
the  middle  and  lateral  incisors,  and  the  canines  offer  further 
guides  to  the  endocrine  constitution  analysis.  The  size  of  the 
central  incisors  seems  to  be  directly  proportional  to  the  degree 
of  pituitary  predominance.  On  the  other  hand,  the  sizj  and 
regularity  of  the  lateral  incisors  seem  proportional  to  the 
influence  of  the  interstitial  cells.  When  these  are  inferior  in  the 
make-up  of  an  individual,  the  lateral  incisors  are  nearly  always 
distorted.  The  size  of  the  canines  appears  to  be  a  measure  of 
adrenal  activity.  Long  sharply  pointed  canines  mean  well- 
functioning  adrenal  gland  equipment  to  start  in  with,  inherited 
from  a  bellicose  progenitor. 

No  individual  peculiarities  of  the  teeth  are  accidental.  Just 
as  the  absence  of  hair  on  the  face  in  a  man  or  a  moustache  effect 
in  a  woman  stand  for  some  definite  stress  or  strain  in  the 
mechanics  of  interaction  of  the  internal  secretions,  so  likewise 
do  variations  in  dentition,  as  to  the  time  of  eruption  of  the 
teeth,  their  position  and  quality,  and  their  resistance  to  decay. 

Proper  balance  between  the  thymus  and  pituitary  will  permit 
the  eruption  of  the  teeth  within  the  normal  time  limits,  both  the 
milk  teeth  and  the  permanent  teeth.  When  there  is  equilibrium 
between  the  pituitary  and  the  gonads,  the  teeth  will  be  regular 
in  shape  and  position.  Carious  teeth,  in  children  and  adults,  some- 
times indicate  endocrine  imbalance.  Thyroid  and  adrenal  bal- 
ance determines  the  resistance  to  decay  of  the  molars.  Early 
decay  of  the  molars  in  children  is  significant  of  insufficiency  of 
the  thyroid.  When  the  first  permanent  molar,  which  should 
appear  in  the  upper  arch  in  its  usual  position  between  the  sixth 
or  eighth  years,  does  not,  there  has  been  a  prenatal  disturbance 
of  the  pituitary,  according  to  Chayes  and  others.  Rapid  decay 
of  the  teeth  in  childhood  should  always  call  attention  to  the 
parathyroids. 

In  pregnancy,  the  teeth  suffer  particularly  because  of  dis- 
turbances of  the  endocrines.  The  saying,  "A  tooth  for  every 
child,"  is  said  to  have  its  equivalent  in  every  language.  The 
bicuspids  and  second  permanent  molars  erupt  around  puberty, 
when  profound  readjustments  are  going  on  among  the  glands  of 
internal  secretion.  They  consequently  suffer  with  their  abnormali- 
ties or  divergences  from  type.  The  teeth  thus  furnish  a  good 
deal  of  information  concerning  the  distribution  of  the  balance  of 
power  among  the  hormones. 


HOW  GLANDS  INFLUENCE  THE   NORMAL  BODY  125 

The  Skin 

The  skin  is  influenced  in  its  color,  moisture,  hairiness,  texture, 
fat  content  and  disease  vulnerability  by  the  endocrines.  The 
question  of  color  is  very  interesting,  for  it  is  probably  the  ex- 
pression of  the  blending  action  of  the  different  internal  secre- 
tions. Davenport,  the  American  student  of  heredity  and 
eugenics,  has  shown  that  neither  white  nor  black  skins  are  either 
perfectly  white  or  perfectly  black,  but  are  mixtures  in  various 
proportions  of  black,  yellow,  red  and  white.  The  exact  per- 
centages of  the  pigments  in  each  particular  skin,  can  be  deter- 
mined by  means  of  a  rotating  disc.  Thus  a  white  person's  skin 
may  have  the  following  composition: 

Black 8%         Red    50% 

Yellow 9%        White 33% 

The  composition  of  the  skin  of  a  very  black  negro  may  be: 

Black 68%         Red   26% 

Yellow 2%        White   7% 

Now  the  fact  that  in  Addison's  disease  in  which  the  adrenals 
are  destroyed  there  occurs  a  coincident  increase  in  the  black  in 
the  skin,  and  other  evidence  pointing  to  adrenal  implication  in 
dark  complexioned  white  people,  as  well  as  in  those  possessing 
pigmented  spots,  seems  to  indicate  the  adrenals  as  controllers  of 
the  black  and  white  factors.  Davenport  has  concluded  that  there 
are  two  double  factors  for  black  pigmentation  in  the  full-blooded 
negro  which  are  separately  inheritable.  The  determinants  of 
the  red  and  yellow  have  still  to  be  worked  out. 

The  moistness  of  the  skin,  as  perspiration,  depends  upon  the 
number  and  activity  of  the  sweat  glands.  It  varies  with  the 
water  content  of  the  body,  the  state  of  the  vegetative  nervous 
system,  and  the  body  temperature.  Thus  the  skin  of  the  hyper- 
thyroid  and  the  subadrenal  is  soft  and  moist,  because  of  their 
antagonistic  effects  upon  the  sympathetic  system.  The  sub- 
thyroid  and  the  hyperadrenal  have  dry  and  harsh  skins  for  the 
same  reason,  if  no  other  glands  intervene.  However,  in  both  of 
the  latter,  if  there  is  a  persistent  thymus,  the  skin  will  retain 
the  bland  quality  of  adolescence. 

There  is  a  curious  variation  among  the  different  internal  secre- 
tion types  in  the  reaction  of  the  skin  to  stroking.  When  the 
skin,  especially  the  skin  over  the  shoulders,  the  breasts  and  the 
abdomen,  is  stroked  with  some  blunt  object,  the  blood  vessels 
react  either  by  a  greater  filling  up  or  emptying  of  themselves. 


126     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

The  latter  occurs  most  regularly  in  the  subadrenal  types,  the 
former  in  the  hyperthyroid.  Both  forms  of  reaction  run  parallel 
to  the  different  check  or  drive  effects  of  the  vegetative  apparatus. 
With  too  much  drive,  that  is,  too  much  thyroid,  there  is  the 
flushing  reaction;  with  too  little  check,  that  is,  with  too  little 
adrenal,  there  is  the  whitening.  These  differences  probably  ex- 
plain the  emotional  reactions  of  the  face.  In  anger,  for  example, 
some  people  become  a  dead  white,  others  a  fiery  red.  Whether 
one  will  do  one  or  the  other  may  depend  upon  the  relative  pre- 
dominance of  the  thyroid  or  of  adrenal  in  the  individual. 

In  the  distribution  of  fat  beneath  and  throughout  the  skin  all 
of  the  endocrine  glands  appear  to  have  a  voice.  The  typically 
hyperthyroid  and  hyperpituitary  individuals  tend  to  be  thin, 
as  well  also  as  those  who  have  well-functioning  or  excessively 
functional  interstitial  cells.  In  all  of  these  the  administration 
of  the  respective  internal  secretions  increases  the  burning  up  of 
material  in  the  body,  and  all  of  them  have  a  higher  rate  of  tissue 
combustion  than  their  confreres,  with  a  subthyroid  or  sub- 
pituitary  keynote  in  their  cell  chemistry,  or  with  insufficient  in- 
terstitial cell  action.  Generally  the  latter  have  a  very  dry  skin, 
the  former  a  moist  skin.  With  delayed  involution  of  the  pineal, 
obesity  results. 

The  elasticity  of  the  skin  is  another  quality  that  varies  with 
the  concentration  in  the  blood  of  the  internal  secretions.  Elas- 
ticity of  the  skin,  its  recoil  upon  being  stretched  like  a  rubber 
band,  may  be  taken  as  a  measure  of  the  activity  of  all  the 
endocrine  glands.  For,  as  can  be  noticed  especially  upon  the  back 
of  the  hand,  the  older  a  man  grows,  the  less  elastic  becomes  the 
skin.  In  older  people,  raising  the  skin  upon  the  back  of  the  hand 
will  cause  it  to  stand  up  as  a  ridge  for  a  few  seconds  and  then 
slowly  to  return  to  the  level  of  the  surrounding  skin.  Whereas 
in  a  youthful  person  it  will  quickly  snap  back  into  place.  This 
quality  of  elasticity  of  the  skin  is  due  to  the  presence  in  it  of 
the  so-called  yellow  elastic  fibres,  cell  products,  with  a  resilience 
greater  than  anything  devised  by  man.  The  preservation  of  the 
resilience  is  a  function  of  the  internal  secretions.  Thus,  after 
loss  of  the  thyroid,  the  ridging  effect  characteristic  of  senility 
can  be  produced  in  one  young  as  measured  by  his  years.  It 
has  been  said  that  a  man  is  as  old  as  his  arteries,  and  also 
that  as  he  is  as  old  as  his  skin.  It  might  better  be  said  that 
he  is  as  old  as  his  elastic  tissue,  young  when  he  is  rich  in  it,  old 
when  poor  and  losing  it.    And  as  elastic  tissue  and  internal  secre- 


HOW   GLANDS   INFLUENCE  THE   NORMAL   BODY  127 

tions  stand  in  the  relation  of  created  and  creators,  or  at  least 
preserved  and  preservers,  a  man  may  be  said  to  be  as  old,  that 
is  as  young,  fresh  and  active  as  his  ductless  glands. 

The  Hair 

There  is  no  characteristic  of  the  human  body,  except  perhaps 
the  teeth,  more  influenced  in  its  quality,  texture,  amount  and 
distribution  than  the  hair.  And  again,  each  of  the  glands  of 
internal  secretion  plays  a  part,  but  most  importantly  the  thyroid, 
the  suprarenal  cortex  and  the  interstitial  sex  glands.  All  con- 
tribute their  specific  effect,  and  the  blend,  the  sum  of  the  addi- 
tions and  subtractions  constituting  their  influences,  appears  as  a 
specific  trait  of  the  individual,  a  trait  so  significant  as  to  be 
used  by  the  professionals  absorbed  in  the  study  of  man,  the 
anthropologists,  as  a  criterion  of  racial  classifications. 

Some  acquaintance  with  the  history  of  the  normal  growth  of 
hair  is  necessary  to  its  understanding.  There  develops  during 
the  life  of  the  fetus  within  the  womb  a  curious  sort  of  wooly  hair 
every  where  over  the  entire  body  (excepting  the  palms  and  soles 
which  remain  hairless  throughout  life) ,  remarkably  soft  and  flut- 
tery — the  lanugo.  At  about  the  eighth  month  of  intra-uterine 
existence,  a  good  deal  of  this  lanugo  is  lost,  to  be  replaced  on  the 
head  and  eyebrows  by  a  crop  of  thick,  coarse,  pigmented  real 
hair.  So  it  happens  that  at  birth  the  infant's  hair  is  a  queerly 
irregular  growth,  a  mixture  of  what  is  left  of  the  general  lanugo 
development,  and  the  localized  patches  of  the  more  human  hair. 
Until  puberty  this  children's  hair  remains  the  same,  although  at 
times,  particularly  after  dentition,  and  after  infectious  diseases 
which  undoubtedly  alter  the  relations  of  the  internal  secretions, 
changes  of  color  and  texture  occur.  Then,  with  sexual  ripening, 
there  appear  in  males  the  so-called  terminal  hairs,  over  the 
cheeks  and  lips  and  chin,  and,  in  both  sexes,  in  the  folds  under 
the  shoulders  and  over  the  lower  abdomen,  the  hair  which  might 
be  distinguished  as  the  sex  hair  in  contradistinction  to  the  juve- 
nile hair  of  the  head,  the  extremities  and  the  back. 

Now  the  smoothness  of  the  face  in  children  is  connected  with 
the  activity  of  the  thymus  and  pineal  glands.  Among  individuals 
in  whom  the  juvenile  thymus  persists  after  puberty,  no  growth 
of  hair  occurs  on  the  face,  and  in  precocious  involution  or  destruc- 
tion of  the  pineal,  hair  appears  on  the  face  and  in  other  terminal 
regions  in  children  of  six  or  less,  a  symptom  classical  in  the  child 


128      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

who  suffered  from  a  tumor  of  the  pineal,  and  discussed  immor- 
tality with  his  physicians.  It  is  probable  that  these  thymus 
and  pineal  effects  are  indirect  through  their  action  upon  the  sex 
glands.  For  in  the  types  with  persistent  juvenile  thymus  there 
occurs  a  maldevelopment  of  the  sex  glands,  while  in  those  with 
early  pineal  recession  the  sex  glands  bloom  simultanously  with 
the  appearance  of  adolescent  hair  and  mental  traits.  The  hasten- 
ing of  sexual  hair  by  tumors  of  the  adrenal  gland  may  also  be 
put  down  to  a  release  from  restraint  of  the  interstitial  sex  cells. 

There  are  certain  spheres  in  the  hair  geography  of  the  body, 
over  which  particular  glands  may  be  said  to  rule  or  to  possess 
a  mandate.  The  hair  of  the  head  seems  to  be  primarily  under 
the  control  of  the  thyroid.  Thus  in  cretins  reconstructed  by  thy- 
roid feeding,  the  straight,  rather  animal  hair  becomes  lustrous 
and  fine,  silken  and  curly.  In  the  thyroid  deficiency  of  adults, 
a  prominent  phenomenon  often  is  the  falling  out  of  the  hair  in 
handfuls.  Baldness  is  frequently  associated  with  a  progressive 
decrease  of  the  concentration  of  thyroid  in  the  blood.  At  the 
same  time,  there  tends  to  be  a  thinning  of  the  eyebrows,  especially 
of  the  outer  third. 

The  hair  of  the  face  in  males,  and  the  other  terminal  hairs  in 
both  males  and  females,  is  regulated  by  the  sex  glands  primarily. 
In  the  female,  the  ovary,  that  is  to  say,  the  interstitial  cells  of 
the  ovary,  inhibit  the  growth  of  hair  upon  the  face.  In  destruc- 
tive disease  of  the  ovaries,  as  well  as  in  other  affections  of  it, 
hair  in  the  form  of  moustache,  beard  and  whiskers  may  appear  in 
female.  That  is  why  in  women  after  the  grand  sex  change  of 
life,  the  menopause,  hair  often  grows  in  the  typically  male  regions 
because  of  loss  of  the  inhibiting  influence  of  the  ovarian  internal 
secretion  upon  them.  After  castration  of  the  ovaries,  the  same 
may  result.  Removal  of  the  male  sex  glands,  or  disturbances  of 
them,  will  interfere  with  the  proper  development  of  the  normal 
facial  hair.  Of  the  hair  of  the  chest,  the  abdomen  and  the  back, 
the  adrenals  seem  to  be  the  controllers.  Adrenal  types  have 
hairy  chests  in  males,  and  hair  on  the  back  in  females.  They  have 
also  a  good  deal  of  hair  upon  the  abdomen.  The  hair  on  the 
extremities  varies  a  good  deal  with  the  pituitary.  People  with 
hair  upon  hands,  arms  and  legs,  alone,  are  generally  pituitary,  or 
have  a  striking  pituitary  streak  in  their  make-up. 

When  the  adrenals  increase  in  size  in  childhood,  a  remarkable 
triad  follows — general  hairiness,  adiposity  and  sexual  precocity. 
One  fact  should  be  noted.    When  the  adrenals  evoke  precocity 


HOW  GLANDS   INFLUENCE   THE   NORMAL   BODY  129 

and  an  early  awakening  of  the  secondary  sex  characteristics,  it  is 
a  masculine  precocity,  and  an  approximation  to  the  masculine 
even  in  females.  There  is  a  definite  trend  toward  an  increase 
of  the  male  in  the  individual's  composition  at  the  expense  of  the 
female.  We  shall  have  to  consider  this  in  greater  detail  when 
we  analyze  the  internal  secretion  basis  of  masculinity  and  fe- 
mininity. In  general,  the  degree  of  general  hairiness  is  an  index 
to  the  amount  of  adrenal  influence  upon  the  organism.  All  the 
endocrincs  which  affect  the  hair  growth  also  act  upon  the  seba- 
ceous glands  which  oil  the  skin. 

The  Eyes 

Eyes  present  clues  to  internal  secretion  constitutions  dependent 
upon  influences  of  architecture  and  function.  The  thyroid  eye  is 
typical.  It  is  large,  brilliant  and  protruding.  The  individual  is 
"pop-eyed."  On  the  other  hand,  subthyroidized  eyes  tend  to  be 
sunken  and  lustreless.  The  eyes  of  a  pituitary  type  are  either 
set  markedly  apart,  or  close  together,  with  the  hair  at  the  root 
of  the  nose  so  prominent  as  to  constitute  a  separate  bridge  known 
as  the  nasal  brow.  The  size  of  the  pupil,  and  its  humidity,  which 
have  so  much  to  do  with  the  expression  of  the  eye,  vary  directly 
with  the  activities  of  the  driving  and  checking  divisions  of  the 
vegetative  system,  and  are  a  pretty  good  index  as  to  which,  at  the 
time  of  observation,  is  predominant.  When  the  check  system  is 
in  control,  the  pupils  are  large  and  dilated.  When  its  antagonist 
and  rival,  the  drive  system,  is  on  top,  the  pupils  are  small  and 
contracted.  The  reactions  of  the  pupils  when  charged  by  strong 
emotion,  like  fear  or  anger,  likewise  turn  upon  the  status  of  check 
or  drive  internal  secretions  in  the  economy  of  the  organism  at  the 
time  the  exciting  agent  presents  itself. 

Muscles 

It  would  seem,  at  first  sight,  that  organs  like  muscles,  mechan- 
ical instruments  for  the  manipulation  of  the  organism  in  space, 
would  be  more  or  less  independent  of  the  subtler  processes  of  inter- 
nal chemistry  of  the  blood  and  tissues.  But  no  assumption  would 
be  more  beside  the  mark.  Just  as  much  as  the  bones  and  viscera, 
the  teeth  and  the  hair,  they  show  grossly  how  they  are  being 
influenced  by  all  the  endocrine  glands.  So  thyroid  types  generally 
have  a  skeleton  sparsely  covered  with  a  muscular  mantle.    Pitui- 


130      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

tary  types  have  large  well-developed  muscles.  The  pineal  gland 
has  some  definite  relation  to  muscle  chemistry  not  yet  probed. 
Thus,  it  has  been  shown  that  when  the  pineal  has  been  completely 
destroyed  prematurely  by  lime  deposits  in  it,  there  is  con- 
comitant a  wasting  of  muscles  in  places.  This  waste  is 
sometimes  replaced  by  fat.  Pictures  and  images  in  wood  and 
stone  of  these  muscle  freaks  dating  from  the  fifteenth,  sixteenth, 
and  seventeenth  century  are  in  existence.  Then  there  is  the  extra- 
ordinary fatigability  of  the  muscles  which  occurs  in  the  thymus 
types,  who  nevertheless  have  large  well-rounded  muscles,  a 
paradox  of  contradiction  between  anatomy  and  physiology.  Such 
a  type,  for  instance,  may  be  picked  out  by  a  football  coach  for 
an  important  position  in  a  line-up,  simply  on  the  tremendous 
impressiveness  of  the  muscle  make-up,  only  to  see  him  bowled 
over  and  out  in  the  first  scrimmage.  The  tone  of  muscles,  the 
quality  of  resisting  firmness  or  yielding  softness,  is  essentially 
determined  by  the  adrenal  glands,  especially  in  time  of  stress 
and  strain. 

Brown-Sequard  was  the  first  to  show  that  extracts  of  sex  glands 
could  increase  the  capacity  for  muscular  work.  Whether  this 
was  a  direct  effect  upon  the  muscles,  or  indirect  through  the 
nerves  or  other  endocrines,  no  one  can  say.  Certainly  the  car- 
riage of  an  individual,  outer  symptom  of  the  inner  tonus  among 
his  muscles  and  tendons,  may  be  said  to  be  as  distinctively  an 
endocrine  affair  as  the  color  of  his  skin.  And  like  its  variations, 
variations  of  their  tone,  development,  reactivity,  fatigability, 
and  endurance  may  be  traced  to  corresponding  states  of  overac- 
tion,  or  underaction,  and  odd  combinations  of  the  different  hor- 
mones. Much  remains  to  be  learned  about  them  and  the  manner 
of  their  control.  Such  an  affliction  as  flatfoot,  dependent  upon  a 
laxity  of  the  ligaments  in  one  who  seems  perfectly  healthy  and 
strong,  may  lead  the  analyst  back  to  a  thymus-centered  person- 
ality.   That  is  but  one  example. 

Since,  too,  muscle  attitudes,  muscle  tensions  and  muscle  relaxa- 
tions play  so  large  a  part  in  the  production  of  fundamental  mental 
states:  the  attitudes,  moods,  memories  and  will  reactions,  the 
vegetative  apparatus  enters,  to  play  its  part  as  a  determinant. 

Sex 

Over  no  domain  of  the  body  have  the  endocrines  a  more  abso- 
lute mandatory  than  over  that  of  the  whole  complex  of  sex.    Both 


HOW  GLANDS   INFLUENCE  THE  NORMAL  BODY  131 

as  regards  the  primary  reproductive  organs,  their  size  and  shape, 
and  the  character  of  their  implantation,  malformations  and  anom- 
alies, as  well  as  the  physical  and  mental  traits  lumped  as  the 
secondary  sexual,  puberty,  maturity,  and  senility,  voice  changes 
and  erotic  trends,  virility  and  femininity,  the  internal  secretions 
are  dictators  at  every  step.  So  significant  are  these,  that  even 
a  rough  summary  of  the  discoveries  and  the  outlook  in  the  field 
involves  some  consideration  of  the  details. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    MECHANICS    OF    THE    MASCULINE    AND    THE 

FEMININE 

It  needs  a  poet  to  chant  the  epic  of  sex.  The  mystery  of  it 
puzzled  the  minds  of  the  earliest  Sumerian  thinkers.  As  a 
source  of  deepest  excitement,  it  generated  the  most  revolting 
ceremonies,  bizarre  customs,  astounding  cruelties  and  incompre- 
hensible stupidities  of  the  race.  Men  and  women,  as  soon  as  they 
have  done  with  their  usual  business  of  keeping  themselves  free 
of  disagreeable  sensations,  hunger,  cold,  fear  of  enemies,  betake 
themselves  to  it  as  a  primary  interest  all  over  the  world.  The 
most  advanced  psychologists  of  the  day  link  the  sex  impulse 
with  the  windings  and  twistings  of  all  human  activity. 

Yet  the  Homer  of  sex  through  the  ages  is  still  to  come.  But 
at  all  times  the  mystery  evoked  speculation  and  attempt  at 
explanation.  Acting  upon  their  theories  as  to  the  nature  and 
function  of  sex,  men  have,  ever  since  the  passing  of  the  primeval 
matriarchates,  segregated  women,  equalized  them,  worshipped 
them,  or  enslaved  them.  Opinions  have  varied  from  ancient 
national  aphorisms  to  the  effect  that  women  have  no  souls  to  the 
most  ultramodern  utterances  of  biologist-publicists  that  the  dif- 
ferences between  men  and  women  are  the  differences  between  two 
species.  There  are  other  epigrams,  vast  sweeping  generalities, 
extant  concerning  the  nature  of  sex,  and  women  particularly.  All 
partake  of  the  complexity  of  truth  and  therefore  own  a  certain 
validity.  Still,  since  as  a  matter  of  fact,  these  items  have  been 
based  upon  superficial  observations  colored  by  the  tradition  and 
verbiage  of  the  milieu,  they  are  valuable  more  as  human  docu- 
ments, as  material  for  the  psychologist,  than  as  scientifically 
obtained  data,  able  to  stand  unblinking  before  the  rays  of  the 
critical  searchlights. 

Science  vs.  Art 

Not  that  all  the  vast  accumulation  needs  to  be  thrown  pell-mell, 
higgledy-piggledy  into  the  discard.    The  love  lyrics  of  the  poet, 

132 


MECHANICS  OF  THE  MASCULINE  AND  FEMININE  133 

the  magic  of  the  emotions  of  Shelley  and  Poe,  for  instance,  with 
their  marvelous  music  and  exquisite  intonings  of  feeling,  furnish 
us  with  important  information.  They  are  the  facts  of  the  sex 
life,  as  much  as  the  song  of  the  nightingale,  or  the  mocking 
laughter  of  the  cuckoo  pursued  by  its  mate.  So  Sappho  and 
Elizabeth  Browning,  to  take  only  two  samples,  have  contributed 
some  of  the  feminine  reaction.  The  erotic  motive  in  literature 
has  but  paralleled  the  erotic  motive  in  life,  with  all  of  its  vaga- 
ries, delusions,  confusions,  ecstasies  and  suffering. 

We  have  had  concerning  sex  not  knowledge,  but  a  series  of 
attitudes,  the  attitude  of  virtue,  the  attitude  of  pruriency,  the 
attitude  of  good  taste,  the  attitude  of  the  theoretic  libertine,  the 
attitude  of  the  satyr's  vulgarity.  All  these  poses,  of  course,  have 
supplied  not  an  iota  to  an  understanding  of  the  foundations  of  the 
problems  of  sex,  biologically  considered.  Thus,  a  masculine 
master  has  coined  that  immortal  phrase,  the  Eternal  Feminine. 
And  in  a  matriarchate  we  should  undoubtedly  hear  of  the  Eternal 
Masculine.  Each  leaves  one  as  unenlightened  as  the  other. 
A  rough  and  ready  code  of  life  attributes  certain  grossly  charac- 
teristic qualities  of  mind  and  body  to  each  sex.  This  is  sup- 
posed to  be  enough  for  common  sense.  Beyond  that  the  mystery 
has  been  wrapped  in  cotton  wool.  That  perhaps  explains  the 
enormous  popularity  of  contemporary  pornographic  and  so-called 
sex  literature. 

There  are  bound  up  with  sex  feeling  and  sex  knowledge  many 
customs,  beliefs  and  habits,  many  legal  statutes  and  social  insti- 
tutions, in  the  complex  that  is  called  sentiment,  to  which  science 
looms  as  the  sacrilegious  ogre  who  devours  romance.  Without 
spending  space  upon  the  ravages  of  the  sentimental  idealist,  cer- 
tainly responsible  for  as  much  human  disaster  as  the  brutal  real- 
ist, it  is  manifest  that  a  revolution  in  sex  standards  and 
relations  is  inevitable  as  soon  as  the  new  doctrines  filter  down 
as  matters  of  fact  to  the  levels  of  the  common  intelligence.  And 
surely,  nothing  else  could  be  wished  for  in  the  world  desired  by 
all  of  us,  the  world  ruled  by  intelligence,  and  intelligent  good  will. 

Sex  Chemistry 

A  few  general  statements  may  be  put  down  outright  as  material 
to  go  upon  before  we  proceed  to  details. 

1.  Femininity  and  masculinity  have  a  definite  chemical  basis 
in  the  reactions  of  the  internal  secretions  of  which  they  are  the 


134      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

expression.  That  is  to  say,  that  just  as  a  precipitate  of  chalk 
is  formed  when  one  throws  some  carbonate  of  soda  into  lime 
water,  so  the  masculine  and  the  feminine  are  to  be  looked  upon 
as  precipitates  and  crystallizations  of  a  long  series  of. linked 
chemical  reactions  in  the  fluids  of  the  body,  in  which  the  inter- 
nal secretions  play  a  determining  part. 

2.  Femininity  and  masculinity  are  expressions  of  the  inter- 
play of  all  the  internal  secretions.  It  used  to  be  said  by  smart  cats 
and  accepted  by  the  tabby  cats,  that  a  woman  was  a  woman 
because  of  her  ovaries  alone.  It  is  being  said  by  some  great 
discoverers  of  the  day  that  man  is  a  man  because  of  his  testes 
alone.  Neither  of  these  dogmas  is  true.  There  are  individuals 
with  ovaries  who  show  every  deviation  from  the  feminine  and 
there  are  individuals  with  testes  who  exhibit  every  variation  from 
the  masculine.  The  other  endocrine  glands  are  of  equal  impor- 
tance. 

3.  There  is  no  absolute  masculine  or  absolute  feminine.  The 
ideals  of  the  Manly  Man  and  the  Womanly  Woman  were  erected 
by  the  blind  ignorance  of  the  nineteenth  century  illusionists,  and 
a  line  drawn  to  cleave  them.  But  indeed  biologically  there  exists 
every  transition  between  the  masculine  and  the  feminine.  The 
explanation  of  these  different  sex  types  consists  in  the  dif- 
ferent admixtures  of  the  internal  secretions  possible  and 
actual.  When  we  speak  of  the  feminine  we  really  mean  the  pre- 
dominantly feminine.  And  when  we  speak  of  the  masculine,  we 
mean  the  mainly  masculine.  Between,  all  sorts  of  transitions 
are  possible  and  occur. 

Man  in  relation  to  the  internal  secretions  we  have  considered 
in  reviewing  the  interstitial  cells.  To  him,  we  shall  return  later. 
Let  us  turn  now  to  that  fascinating  subject  of  the  ages,  Woman. 
What  produces  and  maintains  the  Feminine? 

The  Cause  of  Sex 

To  all  appearances,  that  inscrutable  simplest  of  living  things, 
the  fertilized  ovum,  beginning  of  the  human,  starts  bisexual, 
double  sexed,  both  masculine  and  feminine,  or  perhaps  neither 
masculine  nor  feminine.  Then  a  form  develops.  Then  within 
that  form  a  patch  of  cells  arise  which  the  microscopist  recog- 
nizes as  the  forerunners  of  the  male  or  the  female  reproductive 
cells.  Then  some  more  development.  And  at  birth,  sex  is 
definitely  settled,  as  far  as  the  reproductive  organs  are  concerned. 


MECHANICS  OF  THE  MASCULINE  AND  FEMININE  135 

Our  knowledge  here,  as  everywhere,  is  still  fragmentary.  Sta- 
tistical reviews  seem  to  show  that  in  times  of  stress,  war,  famine, 
pestilence,  more  boys  are  born  than  girls.  But  that  is  neither 
here  nor  there.  It  sheds  no  further  light  on  the  subject.  Mono- 
sexuality  is  a  distinction  of  the  human  species:  the  sexes  are 
pretty  clearly  differentiated.  In  some  animals,  such  as  some 
worms,  there  is  a  bisexuality  of  the  individual.  There  are  present 
the  reproductive  organs  of  both  sexes,  capable  of  impregnating 
other  individuals  as  well  as  of  being  impregnated.  In  some  of 
these,  even  self-impregnation  may  occur.  This  is  the  condition 
of  hermaphroditism. 

But  the  higher  up  one  goes  in  the  scale  of  evolution,  the  greater 
becomes  the  distinction  between  the  sexes.  Anatomic  hermaphro- 
ditism becomes  a  rare  anomaly.  Life  appears  to  have  perfected 
this  trick  of  separate  sexes,  sex  specialization,  in  short,  for  the 
sake  of  the  efficiency  which  goes  with  specialization. 

When  a  germ  cell  divides,  its  nuclear  material  breaks  up  into 
segments  known  as  chromosomes.  Now  it  has  been  found,  for 
example  in  the  case  of  the  common  squash  bug,  anasa  tristis, 
that  there  are  22  chromosomes  in  the  female,  and  21  in  the  male. 
In  the  female  two  of  these  are  visibly  different  from  the  rest, 
while  in  the  male  there  is  one  odd  one,  the  remaining  20  being 
like  the  corresponding  20  of  the  female.  Before  the  germ  cell 
becomes  fit  to  mix  with  a  germ  cell  of  opposite  sex,  in  the  process 
of  fertilization,  it  must  lose  one  half  of  these.  So  the  number 
of  chromosomes  for  the  species  is  kept  the  same  or  constant.  This 
is  the  process  of  maturation.  In  the  process,  when  the  chromo- 
some number  is  halved  among  the  females,  11  go  into  each 
mature  egg.  But  among  the  males,  the  odd  chromosome,  also 
known  as  the  X-chromosome,  can  perforce  go  only  into  half  of 
the  sperm  cells,  leaving  the  others  without  it.  So  the  sperm  are 
formed  in  equal  numbers  of  10  and  11  chromosomes  respectively. 

When  fertilization  occurs,  and  the  sperm  cell  fuses  with  the  egg, 
the  following  may  take  place:  (1)  a  ten  chromosome  sperm  may 
unite  with  the  eleven  chromosome  egg,  and  produce  a  twenty-one 
chromosome  individual  or  (2)  an  eleven  chromosome  sperm  may 
unite  with  an  eleven  chromosome  egg  producing  a  twenty-two 
chromosome  individual.  It  has  been  found  that  the  twenty-two 
chromosome  individual  invariably  develops  into  a  female,  and  the 
twenty-one  into  a  male.  Therefore,  femaleness  is  a  positive  qual- 
ity, dependent  upon  the  action  of  the  X-chromosome,  and  male- 
ness  an  absence  of  femaleness,  due  to  lack  of  the  extra,  odd 


136      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

chromosome.  In  man,  two  X-chromosomes  have  been  discovered, 
half  the  sperm  containing  12,  and  the  other  half  containing  only 
10  chromosomes.  The  number  of  chromosomes  in  human  cells 
consequently  is  22  in  the  male  and  24  in  the  female. 

The  X-chromosome  is  the  bearer  of  sex  destiny.  There  still 
remains  the  work  to  be  done  on  the  actual  control  of  sex  by 
man,  apart  from  its  natural  determination.  For  the  time  being, 
let  the  feminists  glory  in  the  fact  that  they  have  two  more 
chromosomes  to  each  cell  than  their  opponents.  Certainly  there 
can  be  no  talk  here  of  a  natural  inferiority  of  women. 

The  Secondary  or  Endocrine  Sex  Traits 

Yet  the  matter  is  after  all  not  so  simple  as  this  would  make  it 
out  to  be.  All  that  can  be  safely  laid  down  is  that  the  character 
of  the  reproductive  organs  is  determined  by  the  extra  chromo- 
somes. And  though  these  reproductive  organs  have  a  good  deal 
to  do  with  the  masculine  or  feminine  quality  of  the  organism  as  a 
whole,  through  their  internal  secretions,  they  are  not  alone.  All 
the  other  internal  secretions  have  their  say  in  the  final  outcome, 
determining  what  may  be  called  the  dominant  sex  quality,  but 
leaving  inherent  the  latent  soil  of  the  other  sex.  This  may 
become  active  and  dominant  in  its  turn,  under  certain  conditions 
of  stimulation,  abnormality,  or  disease,  dependent  upon  a  re- 
arrangement of  status  and  influence  among  the  ductless  glands. 
Bisexuality  preceded  monosexuality  in  the  animal  pedigree,  and 
co-exists  with  it  even  at  the  highest  points  of  the  genealogical 
tree. 

While  from  the  standpoint  of  the  species,  the  criterion  of  the 
sex  classification  of  its  members  will  depend  upon  their  capacity 
to  fertilize  or  to  be  fertilized,  a  quality  that  may,  therefore,  be 
spoken  of  as  the  primary  sex  character,  a  number  of  other  traits 
have  been  evolved  by  sexual  selection,  the  secondary  sex  traits. 
They  have  come  to  be  just  as  important,  to  the  individual,  as  far 
as  his  or  her  consciousness  of  sex  attitudes  and  reactions  to  it  are 
concerned.  The  terms  primary  and  secondary  sex  characteris- 
tics, though  inapt,  must  be  allowed  to  stand. 

These  accessory  sex-serving  traits  undoubtedly  survived  be- 
cause of  their  usefulness  in  external  adornment  for  attracting 
attention  in  courtship,  in  the  metabolic  requirements  of  sex  com- 
bat and  the  sex  act,  and  in  the  necessities  of  caring  for  the 
young,  until  well-grown.    The  rooster's  comb  and  spurs,  the  male 


MECHANICS  OF  THE  MASCULINE  AND  FEMININE  137 

frog's  claspers,  the  stag's  antlers,  and  so  on,  are  familiarly  and 
obviously  so  useful.  Besides  there  are  fundamental  differences 
in  inner  physiology.  The  human  male  consumes  more  oxygen 
than  the  female  per  minute,  since  he  has  more  red  corpuscles  in 
his  blood.  In  some  caterpillars  the  blood  is  yellow  in  the  males 
and  green  in  the  females.  W.  I.  Thomas  has  devoted  an  essay 
of  some  fifty  pages  to  a  review  of  the  organic  differences  between 
man  and  woman.  The  ordinary  criteria,  employed  every  day  by 
the  man  in  the  street  to  distinguish  man  from  woman  may  be 
arranged  as  follows: 

Man  Woman 

Hair  on  face  Hairless  face 

Skin  coarse  and  lean  Skin  fine  and  plump 

Muscles  powerful  Relatively  weak 

Bones  heavy  Bones  light 

Aggressive — bass  voice  Reserved — treble  voice 

The  Role  of  the  Ovaries 

While  the  primary  sex  characters,  as  such,  are  present  and  dis- 
tinguishable from  birth,  quite  the  opposite  holds  for  the  secondary 
sex  traits.  During  childhood  they  are  in  abeyance  or  at  least 
pretty  sharply  suppressed.  Girls  and  boys  who  are  permitted 
to  dress  alike,  to  play  the  same  games  and  among  whom  no 
consciousness  of  sex  is  encouraged  are  often  difficult  to  tell  apart. 
The  boys  will  be  boys,  and  most  of  the  girls  tom-boys. 

With  puberty  comes  a  marked  change  of  attitude  toward  the 
other  sex.  Puberty  is  the  time  of  ripening  of  the  specific  germ 
cells.  It  is  then  the  ovaries  begin  to  secrete  ova  ripe  for  fertili- 
zation, and  the  testes  begin  to  secrete  sperm  ready  to  fertilize. 
Before  this  can  happen  an  event  announced  in  the  female  by  the 
onset  of  menstruation,  two  conditions  must  be  fulfilled  in  the 
endocrine  history  of  the  individual.  There  must  be  a  certain 
atrophy  and  retrogression  of  the  thymus  gland,  and  there  must 
likewise  be  a  similar  atrophy  and  retirement  of  the  pineal  gland. 
Both  of  these  involutions  of  the  glands  of  childhood  must  occur 
before  the  normal  hypertrophy  and  development  of  the  sex  glands 
and  their  secretions  can  start.  Besides,  there  must  be  a  mini- 
mum activity  of  the  thyroid,  adrenal  and  pituitary  glands. 
Without  them,  below  a  certain  minimum,  the  reproductive  organs 


138      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

and  their  secretions  will  remain  infantile,  causing  a  persistent 
infantilism  or  delay  of  puberty. 

Formerly  there  was  ascribed  to  the  ovaries,  in  a  lump  and 
without  qualification,  an  absolute  despotism  over  the  specifically 
feminine  functions  of  menstruation,  gestation,  parturition,  and 
lactation.  Nowadays,  we  see  its  domain  as  a  limited  monarchy, 
if  not  indeed  as  one  sovereign  state  of  a  republic,  a  member  equal 
but  not  superior  to  the  others  of  a  board  of  directors.  Its  true 
business  comes  down  to  two  particular  roles:  first,  the  production 
of  ova,  and,  second,  the  secretion  of  a  hormone  or  hormones. 
Over  the  other  functions  once  supposed  its  monopoly,  all  the 
ductless  glands  rule. 

What  concerns  us  now  is  its  internal  secretion  or  secretions. 
One  of  them  is  known  as  lutein  and  it  has  never  been  chemically 
isolated  in  its  pure  form.  The  existence  of  lutein,  like  the  exist- 
ence of  electricity,  is  an  inference,  something  we  are  sure  is  there 
because  of  its  effects.  It  originates  in  a  remarkable  part  of  the 
ovary,  the  corpus  luteum.  Besides,  there  are  the  products  of  the 
interstitial  cells,  the  creations  of  a  special  layer  of  cells  around 
the  ovum,  the  membrana  granulosa.  They  produce  a  substance 
tonic  to  the  uterus. 

When  the  ovaries  are  removed,  there  occurs  an  atrophy  of  the 
womb  muscle,  due  to  loss  of  this  tonic  substance.  This  atrophy, 
accompanied  by  an  abolition  of  the  normal  periodic  uterine  con- 
traction, makes  conditions  unfavorable  to  pregnancy.  It  has  been 
claimed  that  the  secretion  of  the  corpus  luteum  is  necessary  for 
the  complete  progress  of  a  pregnancy.  Cases  are  on  record,  how- 
ever, of  ovaries  taken  out  soon  after  the  onset  of  pregnancy, 
without  interference  with  the  gestation. 

Castration  is  comparable  in  every  way  with  the  menopause 
or  the  time  of  cessation  of  sexual  life,  a  process  that  might  be 
called  self-castration.  It  produces  certain  general  constitutional 
effects.  Adiposity  often  develops,  undoubtedly  associated  with 
underfunction  of  the  thyroid  and  pituitary  glands.  The  woman 
breathes  less  oxygen  per  minute  and  burns  up  less  food  and  tissue. 
There  is  some  disturbance  of  the  lime  balance  with  an  increased 
excitability  of  the  vegetative  nervous  system.  Concomitant  is  the 
release  of  some  brake  upon  the  blood  pressure  mechanisms,  so 
that  a  family  tendency  to  high  blood  pressure  will  flare  up.  Some 
women  are  rendered  unstable  by  the  process,  others  are  completely 
transformed,  and  still  others  adapt  themselves,  with  little  or  no 
discomfort,  to  the  new  situation.    The  response  to  the  revolution 


MECHANICS  OF  THE  MASCULINE  AND  FEMININE  139 

in  the  cell-republic  of  the  castrate  by  the  other  endocrines,  the 
thyroid,  the  pituitary,  and  the  adrenals,  determines  which  it  is 
to  be. 

For  normally,  with  feminine  puberty,  there  is  an  increased 
activity  of  the  thyroid,  the  posterior  pituitary  and  the  adrenal 
medulla.  These  changes  indeed  constitute  the  formula  of  normal 
feminization.  In  the  male,  the  ripening  of  the  testes  is  accom- 
panied or  perhaps  preceded  by  augmented  function  of  the  adrenal 
cortex  and  the  anterior  pituitary.  This  difference  in  bio- 
chemistry accounts  for  the  contrast  between  the  sexes  in  the  skin, 
hair,  fat,  cartilage  (voice)  and  bone  changes.  Ovary  and  adrenal 
medulla  and  posterior  pituitary  and  thyroid  predominance  con- 
stitute the  feminine  formula.  Testis  and  adrenal  cortex  and 
anterior  pituitary  predominance  comprise  the  masculine  endocrine 
directorate. 

The  Reactions  of  the  Other  Glands 

As  in  so  many  other  aspects,  the  facts  about  the  various 
influences  exerted  by  the  endocrine  glands  upon  the  reproductive 
system  are  complicated  and  disjointed.  A  chink  of  light  has 
been  let  in  upon  a  dark  cave,  and  slowly  the  chink  will  widen. 
But  the  gross  effects  are  clear. 

Around  the  ovary  and  the  uterus,  the  endocrines  gyrate  as 
the  planets  around  the  sun.  The  ovary  is  the  organ  for  the 
preservation  and  maturation  of  the  germ  plasm,  that  treasure 
which  the  body  is  built  but  to  cherish  and  hand  on  as  a  sacred 
heirloom.  The  ova,  the  female  egg  cells,  are  the  fundamental 
concern  of  the  ovary.  Secondarily,  it  secretes  its  messengers  to 
keep  the  rest  of  the  body,  and  particularly  the  other  endocrines, 
in  touch  with  the  necessities  of  the  adventures  of  these  ova.  It  is 
thus  enabled  to  bend  every  force  and  power  at  its  command  to 
the  service  of  the  reproductive  instinct. 

In  learning  their  role  so  well  in  the  course  of  evolution,  the 
thyroid,  the  pituitary  and  the  suprarenal  have  become  indispen- 
sable stimulants  (in  various  degrees  peculiar  to  the  individual),  to 
the  primary  function  of  the  ovary.  As  a  consequence,  to  hold 
the  sex  stimulating  glands  in  check,  there  had  to  appear  others, 
restraining  them  and  so  preventing  sex  precocity.  These  are  the 
thymus  and  pineal.  So  closely  are  they  all  related  that  insuffi- 
cient action  of  the  thyroid,  pituitary  or  adrenals  may  cause 
atrophy  of  the  ovaries  and  uterus,  with  abolition  of  genital 


140     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

function.  If  the  sex  glands  themselves  fail,  as  occurs  usually  in 
most  women  sometime  in  the  forties,  the  thyroid-pituitary-adrenal 
association  must  readjust  itself  to  the  new  development.  The 
adaptation  evokes  the  phenomena  of  the  transition  to  a  new  life, 
the  climacteric. 

The  Significance  of  Puberty 

Tracing  the  development  of  sex  life  there  is  a  certain  order  of 
events  in  a  normal  history.  Before  puberty,  the  ova  have  lain 
asleep,  as  it  were,  in  a  cocoon  state.  Now  with  puberty  they 
awaken.  And  with  them  all  those  profound  mechanisms  and  in- 
ventions that  have  to  do  with  their  nutrition  up  to  ripening. 
Then  revolve  the  cycles  that  are  translated  as  menstruation,  the 
propulsion,  fertilization  and  implantation  of  the  ova  in  the  uterus, 
— the  full  development  of  the  fetus, — its  birth,  and  feeding  after 
birth — all  of  which  are  ductless  gland  controlled. 

Samuel  Butler  once  noted  that: 

"All  our  limbs  and  sensual  organs,  in  fact,  our  whole  body  and 
life,  are  but  an  accretion  round  and  a  fostering  of  the  sperma- 
tozoa. They  are  the  real  "He."  A  man's  eyes,  ears,  tongue, 
nose,  legs  and  arms  are  but  so  many  organs  and  tools  that 
minister  to  the  protection,  education,  increased  intelligence  and 
multiplication  of  the  spermatozoa,  so  that  our  whole  life  is  in 
reality  a  series  of  complex  efforts  in  respect  of  these,  conscious 
or  unconscious  according  to  their  comparative  commonness.  They 
are  the  central  fact  in  our  existence,  the  point  towards  which 
all  effort  is  directed." 

Nothing  could  be  said  more  truly  of  Woman,  and  the  ova  she 
carries.  All  that  transpires  during  pubescence  is  symptomatic  of 
the  underlying  tidal  stir  in  the  cells.  The  uterus  becomes  gorged 
with  blood  periodically,  to  provide  an  enriched  soil  for  the  perhaps 
to  be  fertilized  ovum  to  plant  itself.  The  breasts  grow,  and  fat 
is  deposited  in  particular  places  as  reserve  material  for  the  making 
of  milk.  The  qualities  which  are  to  appeal  to  the  eye  and  ear 
and  even  nostrils  of  the  male  appear.  Instincts  dawn,  an  inde- 
pendence of  spirit  germinates,  emulsified  with  a  curious  shyness 
and  coyness  and  a  desperate  loneliness  and  secrecy.  And  all  be- 
cause there  have  been  let  loose  in  the  blood  from  the  glands  of 
internal  secretion  the  chemical  substances  that  set  going  the 
clockwork  of  sequential  incidents  elaborated  and  repeated  through 
countless  aeons  of  time. 


MECHANICS  OF  THE  MASCULINE  AND  FEMININE  141 

Feminine  Precocity 

Ordinarily,  in  the  north  temperate  climate,  puberty  begins 
about  the  fourteenth  year,  but  may  begin  anywhere  from  the 
tenth  to  the  sixteenth.  Feeding  and  environment  indirectly,  the 
state  of  the  internal  secretions  as  a  whole  directly,  determine 
this.  In  girls,  those  definite  signs,  menstruation  and  the  growth 
of  the  breasts,  before  the  age  of  ten,  mean  premature  awakening 
of  the  ovaries  and  a  concomitant  co-reaction  of  the  other  endo- 
crines,  creating  the  ensemble  of  maturity. 

In  females,  the  primary  stimulus,  the  initial  spark  of  femininity, 
must  originate  in  the  ovary.  There  are  other  forms  of  precocity 
in  the  female,  dependent  upon  stimulations  of  other  glands,  but 
these  forms  are  masculinisms,  a  masculinization  of  the  person- 
ality, and  not  a  true  awakening  of  the  feminine  constitution.  So 
one  must  distinguish  sharply  between  a  precocity  by  masculiniza- 
tion and  precocity  of  premature  feminization.  The  latter  always 
implies  the  touch  of  the  fairy's  wand  upon  the  sleeping  ovaries. 
Sexual  precocity  in  boys  may  be  produced  by  a  premature  over- 
activity not  only  of  the  specific  reproductive  organs:  the  testes, 
but  also  by  an  early  excess  of  secretion  on  the  part  of  the  cortex 
of  the  adrenal  gland  or  the  pituitary  gland,  or  by  a  too  early 
involution  of  the  pineal  or  thymus.  When  such  abnormalities  of 
adrenal,  pituitary,  thymus  or  pineal  occur  in  girls,  it  is  the  mas- 
culine streak  in  the  hastening  of  growth  that  is  made  manifest. 
All  this  emphasizes  the  relative  bisexuality  of  every  normal,  no 
matter  how  pronounced,  when  superficially  viewed,  his  or  her 
form  of  predominating  sex  may  be.  Under  the  right  conditions 
recession  of  the  most  marked  virility  or  femininity  becomes 
conceivable,  and  occurs. 


The  Secret  of  the  Masculine 

Masculinization  having  entered  upon  the  scene,  one  may  well 
ask:  what  truly  (which  means  chemically)  lies  behind  all  these 
differences  and  divergences  between  male  and  female?  What  is 
the  secret  of  the  variable  internal  secretion  admixtures?  You  can 
tell  us  that  the  recipes  are  different,  the  ingredients  different,  the 
results  different  as  a  Nesselrode  pudding  is  from,  say,  a  rice 
pudding.  But  what  is  the  inner  mechanism  of  the  process?  Since 
the  masculine  and  the  feminine  are  but  expressions  of  certain 


142     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

relative  capacities  and  potentialities,  some  single  principle  must 
run  through  the  making  of  both. 

Recognizing  of  course  the  qualifications  inherent  in  so  broad  a 
statement  the  answer  is:  the  handling  of  the  lime  salts.  Life  or- 
iginated, or  at  least  lived  and  worked  for  long  ages  in  sea  water. 
During  these  eras  the  salts  of  the  sea  have  come  to  play  a 
dominant  •  role  in  its  being.  The  lime  salts,  because  of  their 
peculiar  properties  of  dissolving  or  precipitating  themselves  ac- 
cording to  electrical  conditions  in  their  medium,  have  come  to 
occupy  a  central  position  in  all  the  processes  of  growth,  metabo- 
lism and  sex  differentiation.  So  it  is  that  masculinity  may  be 
described  as  a  stable,  constant  state  in  the  organism  of  lime  salts, 
and  the  feminine  as  an  unstable,  variable  state  of  lime  salts.  The 
male  skeleton  contrasts  with  the  female  as  the  stronger,  larger, 
heavier  and  straighter  because  it  is  an  expression  of  a  greater 
capacity  to  utilize,  store  and  keep  lime  in  the  system.  Women 
throughout  their  reproductive  period  are  liable  to  rapid  and 
pendulum-like  fluctuations  of  their  lime  content. 

Menstruation,  pregnancy,  lactation,  all  draw  upon  the  stores 
of  lime,  sometimes  depleting  them  to  the  point  of  softening  of 
the  bones  and  wrecking  the  whole  skeleton.  The  endocrines 
control  the  transport,  and  course,  combinations  and  permutations 
in  the  history  of  lime's  progress  among  the  cells,  and  are  in  turn 
themselves  affected  by  it.  Man  is  relatively  free  of  these  liabili- 
ties, and  so  remains  man  by  his  freedom  from  the  recurrent  crises 
involving  the  lime  salt  reserve  which  constitute  the  essence  of  the 
life  story  of  woman. 

The  Sex  Index 

It  follows  from  these  considerations  that  when  it  becomes  nec- 
essary to  size  the  sex  composition  of  a  man  or  woman,  a  meas- 
urement becomes  establishable  which  may  be  spoken  of  as  the  sex 
index.  To  be  able  to  say  of  Mr.  Llewylln  Jones  that  he  is  sixty 
per  cent  masculine  and  forty  per  cent  feminine,  or  of  Mrs.  Worth- 
ington  that  she  is  seventy  per  cent  feminine  and  thirty  per  cent 
masculine  would  be  of  the  utmost  value  under  all  kinds  of  cir- 
cumstances. Unfortunately,  lacking  as  we  do  the  exact  figures 
of  an  advanced  blood  chemistry  (yet  in  its  most  infantile  in- 
fancy) a  direct  indexing  of  the  sort  is  impossible.  But  it  is  cer- 
tainly conceivable,  along  the  lines  of  measurement  suggested 
by  the  Binet  tests  and  others,  that  a  scale  of  evaluation  of  the 


MECHANICS  OF  THE  MASCULINE  AND  FEMININE  143 

secondary  sex  traits  may  be  elaborated,  which  would  turn  out  as 
valuable  in  understanding  the  frictions  of  the  individual,  and 
more  concretely,  that  aspect  of  it  to  which  pathologists  of  the 
mind  are  tracing  so  much  needless  misery  and  suffering:  malad- 
justed sexuality,  expressed  and  suppressed.  Nothing  will  con- 
tribute more  to  harmonious  adjustment  for  these  sufferers  than 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  we  are  all,  more  or  less,  partial 
hermaphrodites. 

The  Functional  Hermaphrodite 

The  complete  or  total  hermaphrodite  we  define  as  the  indivi- 
dual who  possesses  the  reproductive  organs  of  the  male  and  the 
female,  both  testes  and  ovaries.  So  rare  is  such  a  combination 
in  man  that  for  a  long  time  its  occurrence  was  doubted,  descrip- 
tions of  it  regarded  as  myth.  However,  undoubted  cases  are 
on  record,  examined  by  the  most  careful  of  observers,  of  ovo- 
testis  or  mixed  reproductive  organs.  Strangely  enough,  the  his- 
tory of  these  cases,  shows  that  at  one  time  the  masculine  set,  and 
at  another  the  feminine  set,  will  hold  sway  over  the  sex  traits  and 
functions.    Blending  does  not  happen. 

Rare  though  the  true  hermaphrodite  may  be,  the  partial  her- 
maphrodite is  relatively  frequent.  The  mixed  ensemble  of  the 
directly  contrasting  type,  such  as  the  concomitance  of  testes  with 
feminine  secondary  sex  traits,  or  of  ovaries  with  masculine  sex 
traits,  have  been  described  from  time  immemorial  as  freaks. 
Occurring  even  more  frequently  is  the  mixed  sex  ensemble,  in 
which  the  type  of  reproductive  organs  and  of  secondary  sex 
traits  run  roughly  parallel,  emulsified  with  certain  traits  of  the 
opposite  sex.  Physical  features  of  one  sex,  instincts  and  mental 
attitudes  of  the  other  co-exist  in  the  same  individual  by  reason 
of  an  excess  in  one  direction  or  a  deficiency  in  another  of  the 
internal  secretions.  The  degree  of  masculine  trend  in  a  woman 
is  a  crude  measure  of  adrenal  domination,  the  degree  of  feminine 
deviation  in  a  man  is  roughly  proportional  to  the  amount  of 
pituitary  influences  in  his  make-up. 

Whether  one  or  the  other  sex  tendency  will  dominate  depends 
upon  the  quantity  of  sex  hormone  divergence  from  the 
ideal  normal.  But  also  determinant  are  the  environment  stimuli 
provoking  excessive  or  deficient  secretory  reactions  from  the  other 
endocrines  involved,  through  the  vegetative  nervous  system.  Such 
especially  are  the  associates  of  the  mixed  sex  individual.    Or- 


144      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

dinarily  the  combative  male  and  the  submissive  female  are  differ- 
entiated by  contrasts  of  skin  and  hair,  fat  and  bone  structure. 
The  combative  male  is  built  as  a  fighting  machine,  the  submissive 
female  as  an  organism  of  attractive  grace  and  beauty  for  impreg- 
nation and  parturition.  When  one  sees  the  fragile  woman  aggres- 
sive, the  masculinoid  woman  submissive,  one  may  infer  an  educa- 
tion of  experience  that  has  brought  the  usually  recessive  glands 
into  the  foreground,  and  by  their  hyperactivity  imposed  a  bisex- 
uality  of  function  upon  a  unisexual  anatomic  structure.  A  man 
apparently  as  formidable  as  a  tyrannosaurus,  may  be  ruled  by 
his  wife  for  the  same  reason.  These  combinations  of  a  single 
organic  sexuality  with  a  functional  bisexuality,  based  upon 
internal  secretion  disturbances,  are  frequent,  and  merit  the  name 
of  functional  hermaphrodites  or  mixed  sex  types. 

Mixed  Sex  and  the  Family 

The  psychology  of  the  family  in  its  relation  to  the  endocrine 
traits  of  its  members  is  something  that  still  remains  to  be  thor- 
oughly worked  out  as  a  problem  of  tremendous  importance.  Par- 
ticularly are  the  reactions  of  the  mixed  sex  types  to  be  carefully 
considered.  For,  since  the  family  is  fundamentally  a  sex  institu- 
tion, devised  to  satisfy  the  sex  needs,  all  the  way  from  compan- 
ionship to  parenthood,  it  is  apparent  that  the  mixed  sex  types 
will  be  tried  the  hardest  by  its  inexorable  conditions.  It  is  in 
relation  to  the  mother  (or  nurse)  first,  the  father  next,  and  other 
associates  in  proportion  to  their  proximity,  that  the  primary 
endocrine-vegetative  mechanisms,  the  germs  of  the  growing  soul, 
become  established.  These  are  superimposed  upon  the  hereditary 
instinct  apparatus. 

Fear,  rage  and  love  reactions  develop  first  in  association  with 
the  suckling  reflex,  and  the  accompaniments,  the  mother's  smile 
and  voice,  the  color  of  her  hair,  eyes  and  skin,  her  breasts  and 
odors.  Each  time  the  babe  reacts  to  a  pleasant  or  unpleasant 
stimulus,  there  is  an  outpouring  of  certain  internal  secretions,  a 
cessation  of  others,  a  tingling  of  certain  vegetative  nerves  and 
organs,  a  hushing  of  others.  The  ensemble  of  reactions  tends 
to  be  repeated  around  the  same  stimulus,  until  the  whole  becomes 
automatic.  One  may  observe  the  same  process  in  the  lower 
animals.  Offer  a  piece  of  meat  to  a  dog  and  his  mouth  waters. 
Ring  a  bell  before  offering  the  meat.  Repeat  this  a  number  of 
times,  and  after  a  while  the  mere  ringing  of  the  bell,  without  the 


MECHANICS  OF  THE  MASCULINE  AND  FEMININE  145 

presence  of  the  meat,  will  cause  his  mouth  to  water.  This  asso- 
ciated vegetative  secretion  reflex  is  the  most  fundamental  to 
grasp  in  an  understanding  of  the  deepest  strata  of  personality. 

Now  there  are,  besides  the  associated  vegetative-endocrine 
reactions,  certain  inborn  automatic  processes  in  the  vegetative 
system  and  in  the  internal  secretion  system,  which  work 
automatically  to  produce  increased  intravisceral  pressures.  The 
reduction  of  these  pressures  below  the  point  of  their  intrusion 
upon  consciousness,  their  relief,  as  we  say,  also  form  the  centers 
of  constellations  around  feelings  of  satisfaction  or  love.  Such,  for 
example,  are  the  voiding  of  excretions.  Sooner  or  later,  these 
automatic  reactions,  and  the  associated  reflexes  formed  around 
the  mother,  father  and  other  associates,  come  into  conflict.  In- 
hibitions or  prohibitions  of  the  automatic  act  at  certain  times  or 
moments  are  imposed  by  somebody.  And  so  there  occurs  a  pitting 
of  the  automatic  mechanism  against  the  associated  reflex.  Con- 
flict, with  adjustment  by  suppression  must  occur.  Thus  a  sense 
of  self  as  active  wisher  (for  the  automatically  pleasant  expe- 
rience), and  punishable  suppressor  (of  the  same  in  favor  of  the 
acquired  associated  reflex)  develops. 

So  far,  so  good.  Compromise  by  regulation  from  above,  from 
the  brain,  of  the  automatic  reactions  follows,  as  training.  No 
absolute  repression  is  forced,  no  absolute  encouragement  is  in- 
dorsed. Harmonious  equilibrium,  or  normality,  continues.  But 
now  there  come  upon  the  scene  the  unconscious  fears. 

In  the  paleontology  of  character,  these  fears  are  the  deepest 
strata,  the  eocene  era,  so  to  speak,  of  the  soul.  They  are  the 
hardest  to  get  at  and  the  most  silent,  as  well  as  the  most  dominant 
of  the  influences  which  guide  conduct.  In  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's 
words : 

"Passions  are  best  likened  to  streams  and  floods. 
The  shallows  murmur,  the  deeps  are  dumb." 

During  the  first  period  of  childhood,  up  to  five  or  six,  the  pri- 
mary fears  group  themselves  around  the  taboos  and  secrets  of 
its  life. 

Though  we  have  every  reason  for  believing  that  the  sex 
glands  are  acting  in  some  way  upon  the  organism  during  this 
time,  nothing  definite  is  known.  Yet,  as  the  numerous 
studies  of  the  subconscious  recently  made  prove,  sex  curiosity 
like    the    other    curiosities,    flowers.      More    than    about    the 


146      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

automatic  visceral  reactions,  these  curiosities  evoke  the  repressive 
imperatives  of  the  associates,  the  mother  and  father  es- 
pecially. These  repressive  influences  may  be  and  often  are  the 
effects  of  ignorance,  prudishness,  vulgarity,  or  homosexu- 
ality, or  the  sex  perversions  that  are  known  as  sadism  and 
masochism.  But  by  the  necessities  of  the  case,  the  sex  wishes 
become  overlayed  by  reflexes  associated  with  the  mother  and 
father  and  close  associates  as  love.  This  might  be  termed  the 
oligocene.  As  the  circle  of  acquaintance  widens,  other  loved 
objects  usher  in  the  miocene  phases  of  the  development.  With 
these  become  interspersed  various  hates  and  detestations,  deliber- 
ately cultivated  and  accepted  by  the  consciousness.  So  we  have 
a  cross-slice  of  the  personality  in  the  first  five  or  six  years  of 
childhood. 

But  now,  with  the  onset  of  the  second  dentition,  a  subtle 
change  begins  in  the  endocrine  equations  of  the  body.  The 
second  dentition  itself  is  an  expression  of  a  certain  internal  secre- 
tion wave  passing  through  the  cells,  an  increase  of  action  of  some 
hormones,  a  decrease  of  others.  And  a  consciousness  of  physical 
sexuality  appears,  while  the  outlines  of  character,  hitherto  mere 
tracings,  become  firmer,  heavier,  quasi-indelible  lines.  That 
there  is  some  activity  on  the  part  of  the  internal  secretions  of 
the  sex  glands,  the  ovaries  and  testes,  can  be  demonstrated  by 
accurately  charting  the  behaviour  of  a  boy  or  girl  after  this 
time.  It  will  be  found  that  there  is  a  cyclic  variation  of  health 
and  conduct,  more  or  less  marked  of  course  in  each  case.  A  cold 
may  appear  periodically  at  the  end  of  each  month,  an  increase  of 
irritability  and  waywardness  may  be  observed,  or,  on  the  con- 
trary, a  decrease  of  the  regular  restless  playfulness.  The  ghost 
of  sex  begins  to  haunt  the  scene. 

Now  all  kinds  of  possibilities  of  conflict  emerge.  The  child  is 
still  a  bisexual,  growing  into  a  mixed  sex  type,  depending  upon 
the  nature  and  amount  of  its  internal  secretions.  The  influencing 
adult  of  the  family,  the  most  important  of  the  external  factors 
encouraging  or  depressing  the  tendencies  of  the  child,  possesses 
a  fairly  fixed  ideal  of  monosexuality  which  he  or  she,  generally 
quite  unconsciously,  seeks  to  impose  upon  it.  A  doting  feminine 
mother  will  make  her  son  as  much  as  possible  like  her  husband:  if 
she  dislikes  her  husband,  as  much  as  possible  like  her  father  or 
grandfather.  A  masculinized  mother  will  tend  to  make  a  sex  ob- 
ject out  of  the  son,  however,  which  means  his  feminization.  But, 
on  the  internal  secretion  side,  the  boy  may  be  definitely  masculine. 


MECHANICS  OF  THE  MASCULINE  AND  FEMININE  147 

That  is,  after  adolescence  he  would  be  strongly  masculine,  if  the 
vegetative-endocrine  mechanisms  created  by  the  mother's  person- 
ality had  not  slipped  into  the  inside  track,  so  to  speak.  As  a  con- 
sequence, continual  subconscious  conflict  between  the  two  sets  of 
sex  reaction  will,  sooner  or  later,  disturb,  perhaps  disrupt  and 
ruin  his  life. 

So  an  infant  may  start  life  with  a  fairly  balanced  endocrine 
equipment,  with  its  wake  of  a  normal  life  (barring  accidents 
and  infections),  and  yet  he  may  end  as  an  inferior,  insane,  crim- 
inal, or  failure  directly  because  of  establishment  of  conflict  be- 
tween himself  as  one  sort  of  sex  type,  and  his  obligatory  associates 
of  another  sort  of  mixed  sex  type.  This  applies  also  to  the 
mother-daughter,  the  father-son,  and  the  father-daughter  rela- 
tionship. 

Male  and  female  created  He  them,  is  a  bald  misstatement  of 
the  facts.  Male  and  female  emerge  as  final  by-products  of 
endocrine  heredity,  environmental  treatment  and  adaptation. 
Often  the  male-female,  the  female-male,  persist  anatomically,  or 
are  forced  to  persist  functionally.  Society,  constructed  upon  the 
Biblical  dogmas  of  man  as  a  fallen  angel,  and  absolute  sex,  is  re- 
sponsible for  much  misery  and  suffering  meted  out  to  the  func- 
tional hermaphrodite,  as  we  shall  see  later  in  an  analysis  of  the 
endocrine  character  of  Oscar  Wilde.  The  privileges  and  powers  of 
sex  relationship,  marriage  and  parenthood,  should  be  safeguarded 
for  the  mixed  sex  type,  the  man  or  woman  with  the  variable  sex 
index.  For  there  are  no  tragedies  in  life  more  pitiful  than  those 
in  which  an  aggressive  masculinely  built  type  is  forced  to  assume 
a  submissive,  receptive,  passive,  feminine  role  and  vice  versa,  the 
tragedy  of  compelled  homosexuality,  because  of  wrong  associates. 

Masochism  and  Sadism 

The  functional  hermaphrodite  enables  us,  too,  to  understand 
the  phenomena  of  masochism  and  sadism,  to  a  certain  extent, 
on  the  chemical  side.  The  masculine  personality,  the  combination 
of  masculine,  e.g.,  adrenal  cortex  and  gonad  internal  secretion 
predominance,  is  built  for  aggression.  The  feminine  personality, 
the  union  of  feminine,  e.g.  thyroid  and  ovarian  superiority,  is  con- 
structed for  submission.  Reverse  the  possibilities,  or  confuse  them, 
as  occurs  in  the  functional  hermaphrodite,  and  the  attitudes  be- 
come reversed  or  perverted.  So  a  masculinoid  personality  in 
woman  will  make  for  sadism,  a  feminoid  personality  in  a  man 


148      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

for  masochism.  Variants  and  refinements  of  these  perversions 
will  often  be  found  in  the  functional  hermaphrodite  who  must 
satisfy  two  doubly  flowing  streams  of  visceral  pressure  within 
himself.  Persistence  of  the  thymus  or  pineal  gland  tends  to  a 
prolongation  of  the  infantile  and  child  types,  that  will  be  taken 
advantage  of. 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  RHYTHMS  OF  SEX 

If  one  permits  a  drop  of  ink  to  fall  into  a  glass  of  water, 
amazing  figures  and  shapes,  bizarre  and  chameleon,  are  born  as 
the  blue  swirls  and  whirls  through  the  resisting  medium.  Unseen 
forces  and  currents,  tides  and  pressures,  set  up  a  seething  and 
flowing,  pulling  and  twisting  of  the  drop  of  ink  until  it  becomes 
a  strange  wraith  created  out  of  the  molecules.  A  temporary 
individuality  lives  in  the  water. 

So  likewise  the  forces  of  sex,  essentially  the  forces  of  the  inter- 
nal secretions,  mould  and  sculpt  and  mould  again  the  woman  out 
of  the  flesh  and  blood.  Adolescence — puberty — menstruation: 
the  maid, — pregnancy — labor — lactation:  the  matron,  thirty 
years  of  ups  and  downs  of  these  processes  around  the  idea  of 
love  or  suppressed  love,  against  an  aesthetic  background  of  some 
sort — and  finally  the  loss  of  the  stress  and  strain  of  sex,  the 
menopause.  All  the  landmarks  of  the  life  of  woman,  in  their 
entirety,  are  erected  and  dominated  by  the  tides  and  currents, 
the  phases  of  concentration  and  dilution,  of  the  different  internal 
secretions  in  the  endocrine  mixture  which  is  the  blood. 

Marvelous  are  all  the  manifestations  of  the  reproductive  neces- 
sity. Considering  that  reproduction  was  at  first  merely  a  form 
of  growth,  a  discontinuous  kind  of  growth,  that  seized  upon  sex 
as  a  splendid  means  to  escape  death,  the  chemical  methods 
evolved  arouse  a  sense  of  awe.  A  baby  is  born  with  her  or  his 
glands  practically  as  fixed  for  her  or  him  as  the  color  of  the  eyes. 
Thymus  and  pineal  keep  him  a  child,  keep  him  unsexed.  Then 
at  puberty,  a  new  current  is  added  to  the  calmly  flowing  river, 
and  behold!  a  turmoil.  Ovaries  or  testes  actively  functioning 
erupt  upon  the  calm  spectacle,  and  the  girl  is  transfigured  into  the 
maid,  the  boy  into  the  youth.  After  the  ovaries,  the  corpus 
luteum:  after  the  corpus  luteum,  the  placenta:  after  the  pla- 
centa, the  mammary  glands:  after  that  the  cycle  begins  again 
until  the  ovaries  are  exhausted  and  the  chain  is  broken.  Besides, 
all  the  other  glands  of  internal  secretion  beat  in  rhythm,  fluc- 

149 


150      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

tuate  in  their  activities,  may  divide  prematurely  the  tides  or 
dam  them  completely. 

Innumerable  varieties  and  combinations  of  interglandular  ac- 
tion supply  us  with  the  limitless  types  of  adolescent  girls.  Some 
endocrine  cooperatives  that  make  one  girl  stable  and  settled,  will 
make  others  unstable  and  unsettled.  Alicia  may  be  hyperthy- 
roid,  and  so  excitable,  nervous,  restless,  and  subject  to  palpitation 
of  heart  and  sleeplessness.  Bettina  may  have  too  much  post- 
pituitary,  and  so  will  menstruate  early,  tend  to  be  short,  blush 
easily,  be  sentimentally  suggestive  and  sexually  accessible. 
Christina  may  be  adrenal  cortex  centred  and  so  masculinoid: 
courageous,  sporty,  mannish  in  her  tastes,  aggressive  toward  her 
companions.  Dorothea  may  have  a  balanced  thyroid  and 
pituitary  and  so  lead  the  class  as  good-looking,  studious,  bright, 
serene  and  mature.  Florence,  who  has  rather  more  thyroid  than 
her  pituitary  can  balance,  will  be  bright  but  flighty,  gay  but 
moody,  energetic,  but  not  as  persevering.    And  so  on  and  so  on. 

Environment,  habit-formation,  training,  education  serve  only 
to  bring  out  the  internal  secretion  make-up  of  the  girl,  or  to 
suppress  and  distort  and  so  spoil  her.  Adolescence  will  be  peace- 
ful, calm,  semi-conscious,  or  disturbing,  revolutionary  and  obses- 
sive according  to  the  reaction  of  the  other  endocrines  to  the  rise 
of  the  ovaries.  Harmony,  and  so  continued  happiness  of  the  mind 
and  body,  means  that  they  have  been  welcomed  into  the  fold. 
Disharmony,  ailments,  unhappiness,  difficulties,  mean  that  they 
are  being  treated  as  intruders,  or  are  acting  as  marauders.  The 
after  life,  sexually  the  period  of  maturity,  barring  accidents, 
diseases,  and  shocks,  will  bear  the  same  character.  The  kind  of 
adolescence  provides  the  clue  to  the  kind  of  maturity,  for  both 
are  effects  of  the  same  endocrine  factors. 

The  Sex  Gland  Chain 

Furthermore,  the  activities  of  a  normal  woman  involve  a 
series  of  sex  glands.  Since  there  function,  in  addition  to  the 
ovaries,  the  glands  of  the  uterus,  the  breasts  or  mammary  glands, 
and  the  placental  gland  (the  secreting  cells  of  the  tissue  which 
comes  out  as  the  after-birth).  Each  of  these  contributes  directly 
to  the  reproductive  life  of  the  individual.  To  call  the  ova  the 
sex  glands  is  to  confer  upon  them  a  name  which  really  belongs 
to  a  chain  of  glands. 

All  of  the  members  of  the  sex  chain,  including  those  of  the 


THE  RHYTHMS  OF  SEX  151 

thyroid,  the  adrenal  and  the  pituitary,  are  necessary  to  the  func- 
tions of  menstruation,  impregnation,  settlement  of  fertilized  ovum 
in  the  wall  of  the  uterus,  labor  and  lactation.  A  disturbance  of 
one  of  them  will  set  up  disturbances  all  along  the  line,  and  a 
resonance  of  distress  or  compensation  upon  the  part  of  all  of 
them.  As  an  interlocking  directorate  over  the  sexual  functions 
of  the  female,  they  are  members  one  of  the  other.  So  what 
helps  or  hurts  one,  helps  or  hurts  all. 

The  Cycle  of  Menstruation 

Essentially,  the  ovary  is  a  collection  of  follicles,  nests  of  cells, 
acting  as  safe  deposit  vaults  for  the  ova  that  are  to  become  can- 
didates for  fertilization.  At  birth,  there  are  some  30,000  to 
200,000  of  these,  of  which  a  good  many  atrophy  during  child- 
hood so  that  there  are  no  more  than  about  30,000  left  at  puberty. 
Of  the  30,000,  only  an  elite  400  actually  mature  between  the 
ages  of  fifteen  and  forty-five.  About  every  twenty-eight  days, 
one  of  the  follicles  swells,  becomes  filled  with  liquid,  pushes  or  is 
pushed  to  the  surface  of  the  ovary,  there  to  rupture  and  expel 
into  the  abdominal  cavity  the  tiny  ripe  ovum.  The  rest  of  the 
torn  follicle  makes  itself  over  into  a  peculiar  yellowish  body, 
the  true  corpus  luteum,  should  pregnancy  occur.  If  pregnancy 
and  the  consequent  placenta  do  not  occur,  it  shrinks  and  turns 
into  a  scar,  the  false  corpus  luteum.  The  true  corpus  luteum 
resembles  closely  the  adrenal  cortex  in  make-up  and  staining 
reactions.  It  seems  as  if,  once  successful  impregnation  has  been 
achieved,  the  feminine  organism  adrenalizes  itself,  makes  itself 
more  masculine  and  less  feminine,  inhibiting  the  posterior  pitui- 
tary and  the  adrenal  medulla,  as  well  as  the  ovaries.  Besides, 
the  corpus  luteum  stimulates  the  thyroid  to  prepare  for  the  heavy 
demands  to  be  made  upon  it  during  pregnancy. 

Before  menstruation,  there  is  a  stage  of  preparation,  a  stir 
and  twittering  of  the  endocrines,  the  premenstrual  state.  Cur- 
rents of  communication  flow  between  the  different  glands,  mes- 
sages and  replies  pass  to  and  fro.  When  these  are  properly 
balanced,  so  that  all  goes  well,  the  consciousness  of  the  woman 
will  be  disturbed  by  no  knowledge  of  them.  In  some  women 
abnormal  sensations  appear,  a  sense  of  fullness  in  the  breasts, 
or  of  weight  in  the  back  or  pelvis,  or  pain  in  the  head.  The 
last  is  probably  due  to  swelling  of  the  pituitary  beyond  the 
capacity  of  its  bony  container.    In  a  good  many  women,  nervous 


152      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

and  mental  phenomena  herald  the  expected  menstruation  because 
of  a  complete  upset  of  the  balance  between  the  internal  secre- 
tions, with  resulting  disturbance  of  the  nervous  system.  Irrita- 
bility, depression,  excitability,  melancholia,  exaltations,  restless- 
ness, hysteria,  loss  of  self-control,  or  even  more  marked  mental 
aberrations  may  appear.  Following  them,  and  roughly  parallel- 
ing them,  may  come  various  abnormalities  of  menstruation  it- 
self. The  character,  extent  and  duration  of  these  furnish  us  the 
best  clues  to  the  endocrine  stability  or  instability  of  the  particu- 
lar feminine  organism. 

Menstruation  is  simply  the  uterus  saying:  well,  not  this  time. 
As  the  destined  ovum  within  its  nest,  the  follicle,  grows,  its  fluid 
affects  the  interstitial  cells  to  send  their  specific  stuff  into  the 
blood.  There  it  circulates,  hits  this  gland  and  that,  makes  some 
more  active,  others  less,  transforms  the  chemistry  of  the  cells, 
and  engorges  the  mucous  membranes,  most  of  all  those  of  the 
nose  and  of  the  uterus.  It  is  all  to  welcome  the  mature  ovum  and 
its  possible  impregnation,  to  prepare  a  site  for  its  landing 
and  settlement,  blood  and  food  for  its  nutrition,  safety  for  its 
development.  But  it  is  not  to  be.  No  sperm  at  hand,  or  effective 
enough  to  penetrate  that  wandering  ovum.  Love's  labour's  lost. 
All  must  return  to  the  so-called  normal,  really  the  intermenstrual 
state.  The  womb  must  surrender  some  of  that  blood,  the  glands 
return  to  their  routine,  and  a  sex  diastole  of  the  whole  organism 
succeeds.  Until  again,  another  follicle  swells,  another  ovum  ma- 
tures, and  the  premenstrual  state  of  sex  high  tide  cycles  back. 

Seven  to  ten  days  before  menstruation  we  know  that  sex  high 
tide  is  beginning  for  that  is  when  the  blood  pressure  goes  up. 
As  this  rise  of  blood  pressure  is  probably  controlled  by  the  poste- 
rior pituitary,  we  have  a  clue  to  the  reason  for  the  rhythmic 
variations  in  the  rate  of  production  of  its  secretion  by  the  ovary. 
For,  since  menstruation  is  so  closely  connected  with  the  phases 
of  the  moon  and  the  tides,  the  rhythmicity  of  the  posterior 
pituitary  may  be  traced  to  the  days  when  the  pineal  was  an 
eye  at  the  top  of  the  head,  and  in  direct  relation  with  the 
pituitary. 

Menstruation  has  been  said  to  be  a  miniature  labor.  It  is  not 
that  as  much  as  it  is  a  miniature  abortion.  It  is  an  effort  of 
nature  still-born.  But  nature  is  quite  used  to  its  disappoint- 
ments and  returns  placidly  to  the  daily  grind.  The  four  phases 
of  a  woman's  twenty-eight  day  cycle  succeed  each  other  as  the 
premenstrual,  the  menstrual,  the  postmenstrual  and  the  inter- 


THE  RHYTHMS  OF  SEX  153 

menstrual,  with  the  precision  of  pistons  moving  in  a  motor,  when 
no  interfering  factor  as  disease,  profound  emotion  or  climate 
disturbances  are  present,  affecting  the  endocrines. 

The  sequence  of  events  appears  to  be  about  as  follows:  The 
amount  of  post-pituitary  secretion  reaches  a  certain  concentra- 
tion. This  in  turn  stimulates  the  thyroid  and  adrenal  medulla. 
They  in  turn  activate  the  ovarian  cells,  which  congest  the  uterine 
glands  and  lining  membrane.  The  follicle  bursts,  the  ovum  is 
discharged  and  wanders,  the  uterus  waits  and  wonders.  Nothing 
happens,  the  curtain  is  lowered,  the  scenery  is  removed,  the 
actors  revert  to  civilian  clothes.  That  is  the  story  of  menstrua- 
tion, the  central  phenomenon  of  woman's  pre-pregnancy  life. 
One  sees  it  clearly  as  a  play  of  an  internal  secretion  syndicate. 

The  Premenstrual  Molimina 

The  premenstrual  molimina  is  the  traditional  title  accorded 
symptoms,  sensations,  feelings,  observations  of  women  in  the 
premenstrual  phase.  In  the  light  of  endocrine  analysis,  they 
become  exceedingly  important  indicators  of  the  underlying  consti- 
tution of  the  individual  concerned.  Indeed,  the  premenstrual 
period  furnishes  a  direct  clue  to  the  dominating  internal  secretion 
in  a  woman.  Moreover,  these  premenstrual  phenomena  are  the 
shadows  cast  by  coming  events.  For  they  mimic  and  prophesy 
the  events  of  the  last  crisis  of  feminine  sex  life,  the  cessation  of 
ovulation  which  goes  by  the  name  of  menopause,  gonadopause, 
or  change  of  sex  life.  The  premenstrual  phenomena  provide  a 
positive  film,  so  to  speak,  of  the  latent  negative  picture  of  the 
endocrine  system  of  the  girl  or  woman. 

Thus,  there  is  the  sub-pituitary  or  pituitary  insufficient  type, 
in  whom  the  excessive  swelling  of  the  gland  causes  headache, 
and  a  dull,  heavy,  tired  feeling,  a  definite  depression.  Drowsi- 
ness, sleepishness,  indifference  to  surroundings,  general  sluggish- 
ness of  thought,  feeling  and  reaction,  a  phlegmatic  frilosity,  all 
go  with  it.  It  is  due  to  an  overweighing  of  the  pituitary,  con- 
troller of  good  brain  tone,  and  alive  wakefulness,  by  the  demands 
of  the  organism. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  hyperthyroid  type  of  woman  re- 
acts with  an  exaggeration  of  her  tendency.  When  the  posterior 
pituitary  begins  to  secrete  more  in  her  its  stimulation  of  the 
thyroid  is  enough  to  tip  it  over  the  normal  line.  Such  a  woman 
in    the    premenstrual    phase    becomes    irritable    and    restless, 


154      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

does  not  know  what  to  do  with  herself,  cannot  concentrate  on 
conversation,  occupation  or  any  single  activity,  may  become 
excited  to  the  point  of  mania.  Hot,  tremulous,  sleepless,  or 
sleeping  badly,  she  has  a  much  harder  time  of  it  than  her  pituitary 
sister. 

These  samples  of  premenstrual  internal  secretion  reaction  are 
the  extremes  of  a  vast  number  and  variety  of  types.  There  are 
women  in  an  unstable  quasi-premenstrual  state  for  the  greater 
part  of  their  lives.  Sometimes  an  infectious  disease  or  a  psychic 
blow  will  put  a  woman  into  this  class.  The  significance  of  these 
cyclic  changes  has  been  tremendously  increased  by  the  recent 
formal  admission  of  women  to  participation  in  public  activities 
on  a  plane  of  equality  with  men. 

Evidence  exists  that  in  man,  too,  there  is  some  cyclic 
rhythmicity  of  his  endocrines,  which  sets  up  a  fluctuation  in  his 
physical  and  mental  efficiency.  The  curves  of  these  variations 
have  still  to  be  plotted,  and  will  doubtless  contribute  no  little 
to  our  knowledge  of  the  control  of  human  nature.  One  unex- 
purgated  fact  stands  out:  the  reproductive  mechanism  of  woman 
has  rendered  her  whole  internal  secretion  system,  and  so  her 
nervous  system,  all  her  organs,  her  mind,  definitely  and  sharply 
more  tidal  in  their  currents,  more  zigzag  in  their  phases,  more 
angular  in  their  ups  and  downs  of  function,  and  so  less  predictable, 
reliable  and  dependable. 

The  Masculinoid  Woman 

The  masculinoid  woman,  as  a  functional  hermaphrodite,  exists 
first  as  a  congenital  entity,  with  an  inborn  distribution  of  en- 
docrine predominances  that  make  for  masculinity.  There  are 
also  numerous  acquired  forms.  The  infections  of  childhood, 
measles,  scarlet  fever,  diphtheria,  and  above  all  mumps,  may  so 
damage  the  hormone  system  that  an  inversion  of  sex  type  fol- 
lows. However,  the  stimulative  and  depressive  effects  of  envi- 
ronment are  even  more  significant.  The  effects  of  environment 
in  producing  changes  in  an  organism,  the  changes  the  biologist 
sums  up  as  adaptation,  can  be  tracked  in  many  instances  to 
responsive  reactions  of  the  glands  of  internal  secretion  to  demands 
made  upon  them  by  changed  external  conditions.  So  a  cold 
climate,  which  necessitates  a  more  voluminous  hair  covering  for 
an  animal,  will  evoke  a  hypertrophy  of  the  adrenal  cortex. 
Secondarily  other  effects  appear  as  by-products  of  the  adapta- 


THE  RHYTHMS  OF  SEX  155 

tion.  The  adrenal  cortex  makes  for  pugnacity,  temper,  animal 
courage,  irritability  and  anger  reactions.  So  a  hairy  animal  will, 
in  general  (unless  other  endocrines  come  in  to  defeat  the  primary 
effect) ,  be  more  pugnacious,  courageous,  irritable  and  combative. 
The  same  applies  to  woman.  An  environment  which  tends  to 
encourage  the  masculine  traits  in  her,  to  arouse  repeatedly  her 
pugnacity  and  combative  decisions  in  the  more  rapid  give  and 
take  of  the  masculine  world,  will  rouse  the  adrenal  cortex  to 
greater  activity,  and  so  make  her  face  hirsute,  her  attitudes 
aggressive,  and  perhaps  render  her  sterile.  Concomitantly  there 
may  be  a  disturbance  of  menstruation. 

The  presence  or  absence  of  sterility,  natural  or  enforced,  always 
present,  or  say  appearing  after  the  birth  of  one  child,  must  all 
be  donated  a  prominent  place  in  studying  the  endocrine  make-up 
of  a  woman.  When  there  is  not  enough  ovarian  secretion,  the 
ovum  may  not  be  able  to  burst  through  the  ovary,  a  necessity 
before  it  may  begin  its  travels  to  the  uterus.  Next,  the  propul- 
sive action  of  the  genital  ducts  may  be  insufficient  because  of 
defective  corpus  luteum.  Or  the  uterus  may  not  have  received 
enough  posterior  pituitary  or  thyroid  to  make  it  fit  soil  for  the 
ovum  to  plant  itself  in.  Or  there  may  be  too  much  of  these, 
which  cause  the  uterus  to  massage  itself  daily  by  gentle  contrac- 
tions and  so  keep  it  well-toned.  Excessive  massage  will  throw 
the  ovum  out.  All  these  are  factors  in  the  sterility  problem,  with 
its  psychic  resonances  affecting  the  maternal  instinct. 

The  Maternal  Instinct 

There  have  been  created  high  odes  to  an  unknown  god,  sensuous 
lyrics  of  love,  apostrophes  and  addresses  to  every  human  passion. 
But  no  poet,  to  my  knowledge,  has  risen  to  the  heights  of  the 
maternal  instinct.  Some  contemporary  clap-trap  about  senti- 
mentalism  will  perhaps  decry  and  ridicule  the  demand  for  an 
apotheosis  of  it.  There  are  some  who  deny  its  existence,  and 
assert  that  maternity  is  forced  upon  every  woman.  Reduced  to 
its  elements,  such  nonsense  turns  out  the  absurd  pose  of  the 
theorist  desperate  to  epater  le  bourgeois  or  to  cover  up  hidden 
defects  in  his  or  her  make-up. 

Without  the  maternal  instinct,  without  the  hope  of  immortality 
through  somatic  or  spiritual  posterity,  we  should  all,  who  were 
sane  enough,  have  to  condemn  ourselves  to  the  futilities  of  hedon- 
ism.   So  that  the  criminal  who  was  condemned  to  roll  a  huge 


156     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

boulder  up  a  hill,  only  to  see  it  roll  down  again,  would  have  to 
thank  his  lucky  stars  for  his  lighter  punishment.  The  future, 
tomorrow,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  on  Earth,  or  if  you  will,  the 
Republic  of  Supermen,  means  to  all  of  us  what  the  child  means 
to  the  madonna.  The  cynical  epicurean  careerists  and  careerist- 
inas,  and  the  depraved  degenerates  of  a  comfort-lusting  civiliza- 
tion may  have  suffered  an  absolute  atrophy  and  castration  of  that 
instinct.  But  they  are  pathologic  specimens,  and  we  are  not  for 
the  moment  concerned  with  them. 

The  Freudians  have  set  up  a  great  hullaballoo  about  creative 
activities  as  sublimations  of  the  sex  instinct,  or  as  they  would 
have  it,  the  libido.  That  is  their  obsession,  the  confusion  of  the 
sex  instinct,  the  instinct  for  sex  life  and  satisfaction  in  the  relation 
of  the  male  to  the  female,  with  the  maternal  instinct.  The 
paternal  instinct  bears  the  same  relation  to  the  maternal,  as  the 
breasts  of  the  male  do  to  those  of  the  female,  i.e.,  a  functional 
hermaphrodite  trait.  The  maternal  instinct  is  the  instinct  to 
create,  provide  and  care  for  offspring. 

The  mother  expresses  the  deep  craving  of  protoplasm  for  im- 
mortality. What  drives  her  is  the  instinct  of  Life  to  preserve 
itself  unto  eternity  in  infinite  space  and  time.  That  separates 
it  sharply  from  the  temporary  needs  of  the  sex  instinct.  The 
artist,  the  man  of  science  or  letters,  the  statesman,  craftsman  and 
maker  of  every  sort  is  instigated  by  the  maternal  instinct.  He 
creates  for  his  own  pleasure,  to  be  sure.  But  it  is  in  its  essence 
the  pleasure  of  the  bird  making  its  nest. 

It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  distinguish  between  the  sex  instinct 
and  the  maternal  instinct.  For  different  glands  of  internal  secre- 
tion have  been  found  responsible  for  them.  A  distinct  difference 
in  the  quality  and  amount  of  the  two  instincts  may  be  observed 
in  the  same  person.  A  strong  maternal  instinct  may  be  seen 
again  and  again  to  dominate  a  woman  with  but  little  or  no  sex 
urge  or  passion.  Numerous  physiologically  frigid  women  have 
lived  successful  and  happy  married  lives  because  of  contented 
maternity.  Other  women,  with  normal  or  exaggerated  sex  instinct 
who  welcome  and  stimulate  the  sex  life,  may  have  no  wish  for 
children,  no  functioning  maternal  instinct  at  all,  and  if  sterile, 
will  accept  their  fate  with  indifference  or  even  exultation.  These 
variations  occur  because  of  a  difference  in  chemical  source  and 
determination  of  the  two  instincts.  While  the  ovary,  stimulated 
by  the  thyroid  and  the  adrenal  medulla,  is  the  chief  determinant 
of  the  sex  instinct,  to  the  posterior  pituitary  must  be  credited  the 
chief  hormone  of  the  maternal  instinct.    The  interactions  of  the 


THE  RHYTHMS  OF  SEX  157 

two  glands,  the  ovary  and  the  posterior  pituitary,  modified  by 
accessory  influences,  determine  the  relative  intensity  of  the  two 
instincts.  In  a  sense,  the  two  glands  may  be  said  to  be  anta- 
gonistic and  yet  one  stimulates  and  complements  the  other. 

The  Transfigurations  of  Child-Bearing 

Though  what  happens  at  puberty,  what  happens  all  through 
life  through  the  agencies  of  the  endocrines  is  amazing  enough, 
what  occurs  during  the  period  of  child-bearing  is  perhaps  the 
most  amazing  of  all.  As  emphasized,  pregnancy  is  the  time, 
among  the  internal  secretions,  of  a  great  uprooting  and  stirring, 
of  fundamental  and  cataclysmic  changes  in  the  most  intimate 
chemistry  of  the  cells.  It  is  as  if  a  dictator,  inspired  by  his 
country's  danger,  its  enemies  at  the  gates  of  its  capitol,  were  to 
draft  and  mobilize  everyone,  man  woman  and  child  from  every- 
day activities  to  the  necessities  of  defense.  Or  rather  it  is  as  if 
there  appeared  within  the  heart  of  our  civilization  a  common 
purpose  and  intelligence,  now  so  palpably  lacking,  which  magne- 
tized and  drew  to  itself  all  the  streams  of  individual  self-aggran- 
dizing effort.  Imagine  that  possibility  and  how  it  would  change 
the  face  of  the  earth  and  the  entire  basic  constitution  of  human 
life  and  society.  So  do  the  profound  tides  of  the  hormones, 
centering  around  the  new  creature  being  made  in  the  womb, 
transfigure  the  face  and  constitution  of  the  child-bearing  woman. 

During  pregnancy,  in  consequence,  the  integrity  of  every  struc- 
ture of  the  body  is  tested.  A  stern,  relentless  accountant  goes 
over  the  cells,  counts  up  their  reserves,  establishes  a  balance, 
credits  and  debits  according  to  the  demands  of  the  growing 
parasite  within  them.  Follow  changes  in  the  skin,  the  bones, 
the  nervous  system  and  the  mind.  That  is,  all  the  glands,  subtle 
recorders,  transmitters,  producers  of  the  vibrations  of  change 
are  influenced.  But  the  most  influential  are  the  most  affected, 
as  the  most  dominant  personalities  in  a  community  are  most 
disturbed  by  a  revolution. 

In  Sinclair  Lewis'  "Main  Street,"  the  best  novel  ever  made 
about  America  as  a  nation  of  villagers,  the  heroine,  Carol  Kenni- 
cott,  has  this  to  say  to  someone  sentimentalizing  about  maternity. 

"I  do  not  look  lovely,  Mrs.  Bogar.  My  complexion  is  rotten, 
and  my  hair  is  coming  out,  and  I  look  like  a  potato  bag,  and  I 
think  my  arches  are  falling,  ....  and  the  whole  business  is  a 
confounded  nuisance  of  a  biological  process." 

The  exploration  of  the  internal  secretions  has  brought  us  an 


158     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

explanation  and  an  understanding  of  why  child-bearing  is  a 
nuisance.  We  know  now  that  if  Carol  Kennicott's  complexion 
became  rotten  and  her  hair  fell  out,  it  was  because  her  thyroid 
was  not  adequate  to  the  demands  of  pregnancy,  and  that  if  her 
arches  were  falling,  and  her  figure  acquiring  a  potato  bag  dumpi- 
ness, it  was  because  her  pituitary  was  insufficient.  In  all  proba- 
bility she  was  a  thymus-centered  type,  which  accounts  for  much 
of  the  material  that  goes  to  make  up  the  novel. 

Different  endocrine  types  react  characteristically  toward  the 
situations  of  pregnancy.  The  adrenal  type  may  not  be  able  to 
respond  with  the  necessary  enlargement  of  its  cortex  which  is 
normal  for  the  needs  of  gestation.  So  pigmentations,  darkenings 
and  discolorations  of  the  skin,  especially  of  the  face,  the  tradi- 
tional chloasma  develops.  The  hyperthyroid  type  may  become 
sharply  exaggerated,  almost  to  the  point  of  mania  and  psychosis. 
The  subthyroid  will  suffer  an  emphasis  of  her  defect,  and  pass  on, 
because  of  pregnancy,  to  the  truly  diseased  state  of  myxedema, 
the  state  of  dull,  slow,  stupid,  semi-animal  semi-idiocy.  The 
pituitary  type  becomes  more  masculinized.  The  face  becomes 
more  triangular  and  coarser,  the  chin  and  cheek-bones  more  pro- 
nounced, and  there  is  a  growth  of  all  the  bones,  so  that  she  is  seen 
to  grow  visibly  in  height  and  breadth,  and  in  the  size  of  the  hands 
and  feet.  Concomitantly,  there  is  a  changed,  a  more  matured 
and  steadier  outlook  upon  life,  all  due  to  stimulation  of  the  an- 
terior pituitary,  controller  of  growth,  physical  and  mental. 

In  general,  the  major  endocrines,  the  pituitary,  the  adrenals, 
and  the  thyroid  should  hypertrophy  and  hyperfunction  during 
pregnancy.  Should  they  not,  should  adverse  mechanical  circum- 
stances or  chemical  malfunction  prevent,  dire  effects  may  follow. 
A  woman  with  the  closed-in  type  of  pituitary,  shut  up  in  a  small 
non-expansile  sella  turcica,  will  suffer  the  most  violent  headaches, 
will  become  fat,  will  frequently  abort.  One  whose  thyroid  can- 
not rise  to  the  demands  of  gestation,  because  of  previous  disease 
(like  typhoid  or  measles)  which  injured  her  thyroid  excessively, 
may  be  poisoned  by  the  new  elements  introduced  into  the  blood  by 
the  growing  fetus,  as  it  is  the  job  par  excellence  of  the  thyroid 
to  render  innocuous  these  poisons.  Of  adrenal  insufficiency,  fail- 
ure of  the  adrenals  to  hypertrophy  sufficiently  in  pregnancy,  little 
is  known.  Possibly  the  corpus  luteum,  the  endocrine  formed  of 
the  torn  egg  nest  in  the  ovary,  makes  up  for  any  deficiency  in 
this  respect.  For  there  is  the  most  curious  resemblance  imag- 
inable between  the  cells  of  the  adrenal  cortex  and  those  of  the 
corpus  luteum,  some  day  to  be  completely  explained. 


THE  RHYTHMS  OF  SEX  159 

The  Placental  Gland 

The  placenta,  an  organ  and  gland  of  internal  secretion  newly 
formed  in  the  uterus,  when  the  fertilized  ovum  successfully  im- 
beds itself  within  it,  must  be  considered  in  any  analysis  of  the 
transfigurations  of  child-bearing.  Born  with  the  pregnancy,  its 
life  is  terminated  with  the  pregnancy,  for  it  is  expelled  in  labor 
as  the  after-birth.  Its  importance  and  function  as  a  gland  of 
internal  secretion  has  become  known  only  recently.  Many  still 
doubt  and  question  the  accordance  of  that  rank  to  it.  But  feed- 
ing experiments  with  it,  in  various  endocrine  disturbances  in 
human  beings,  have  proved  its  right  to  the  title. 

The  placenta  is  created  by  the  fusion  of  the  topmost  enlarged 
cells  of  the  uterine  surface  and  the  most  advanced  cells  con- 
stituting the  vanguard  of  the  growing  and  multiplying  ovum. 
These  front  line  invaders  interact  with  the  cells  in  contact  with 
them  to  make  a  new  organ  which  serves  as  lung,  stomach  and 
kidney  for  the  embryo,  since  it  is  the  medium  of  exchange  of 
oxygen,  foodstuffs  and  waste  products  between  the  blood  of  the 
mother  and  the  blood  of  the  embryo.  Ultimately  it  acts,  too,  as 
a  gland  of  internal  secretion,  influencing  the  internal  secretions 
of  the  mother,  and  also  those  of  the  embryo. 

Settlement  of  the  fertilized  ovum  in  the  womb  introduces  into 
the  system  new  secretions,  new  substances  which  are  partly  male 
in  origin,  since  the  ovum  contains  within  it  the  substance  of  the 
male  sperm  which  has  penetrated  it.  This  masculine  element 
causes  a  rearrangement  of  the  balance  of  power  between  the  en- 
docrines  towards  the  side  of  masculinity.  They  push  down 
the  pan  of  the  scale  to  inhibit  the  post-pituitary.  So  menstrua- 
tion, the  menstrual  wave  which  follows  the  increasing  tide  of 
post-pituitary  secretion,  is  postponed.  For  ten  lunar  months,  not 
another  ovum  breaks  through  the  covering  of  the  ovary,  and 
the  uterus  is  left  undisturbed.  The  placental  secretion  plays  a 
most  important  role  as  brake  upon  the  post-pituitary,  the  most 
active  of  the  feminizing  uterus-disturbing  endocrines.  Until  at 
last  something  happens  that  puts  the  placenta  out  of  commis- 
sion in  this  function  of  restraint,  and  the  long  bottled  up  post- 
pituitary  secretion  explodes  the  crisis  apparent  as  the  process 
of  labor. 

A  condition  of  self- poisoning  often  occurs  in  pregnancy,  with 
symptoms  orchestrating  from  mild  notes  like  nausea  and  vom- 
iting to  the  high  keys  of  convulsions  and  insanities.  They  rep- 
resent what  happens  when  an  unbalanced  endocrine  system  is 


160     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

attacked  by  the  placenta.  Depending  upon  where  in  the  internal 
secretion  chain  the  weak  point,  the  Achilles'  heel  spot,  will  be 
found,  the  nature  of  the  reaction  will  vary.  And  even  after 
labor,  after  the  explosive  crisis,  so  much  of  the  reserve  endocrine 
materials  may  be  consumed,  that  an  actual  mania  or  a  chronic 
weakness  may  come  in  its  wake. 

Yet  the  placental  secretion  must  not  be  looked  upon  as  some- 
thing wholly  evil  in  its  potentialities.  Without  enough  of  it 
to  hold  the  uterus  stimulating  endocrines,  particularly  the  post- 
pituitary,  in  check,  still-birth  results.  If  there  is  enough,  and 
not  too  much  of  it,  the  woman  will  not  feel  ill  at  all,  or  perhaps 
only  transiently,  but  will  be  possessed  of  a  curious  feeling  of 
drowsy  content  and  passive,  relaxed  happiness.  Let  there  be 
relatively  too  much  of  it,  too  little  of  the  other  glands,  and  the 
grosser  transfigurations  and  ailments  of  the  child-bearing  period 
follow. 

The  Mammary  Glands 

Once  pregnancy  is  terminated  by  labor,  the  placenta  is  expelled 
from  the  body  as  the  after-birth.  The  placenta  removed,  a  new 
arrangement  of  the  balance  of  power  among  the  endocrines  be- 
comes necessary.  But  a  new-comer  appears  upon  the  scene  to 
take  up  the  function  left  vacant  by  the  absent  placenta.  This 
new-comer  is  the  secretion  of  the  activated  breasts,  the  mam- 
mary glands.  They  make  for  a  persistence  of  the  state  of 
equilibrium  among  the  endocrines  attained  during  pregnancy. 

The  mammary  glands  are  typical  glands  of  external  secretion. 
They  make  the  milk  and  pour  it  out  of  the  breasts  through  little 
canals  into  the  mouth  of  the  suckling.  Yet  evidence  forces  us 
to  conclude  that  they  are  also  glands  of  internal  secretion,  that 
their  internal  secretion  substitutes  to  a  certain  extent  for  the 
loss  of  that  of  the  placenta  but  not  quite. 

What  seems  to  happen  in  fact,  is  this:  the  corpus  luteum  secre- 
tion stimulates  the  dormant  cells  of  the  mammary  glands,  formed 
during  puberty,  but  latent  until  the  advent  of  pregnancy.  We 
know  that  injection  of  corpus  luteum  will  cause  an  hypertrophy 
of  the  breasts.  The  same  effect  is  produced  regularly  during 
the  menstrual  period,  with  a  consciousness  of  swelling  of  the 
breasts.  Their  atrophy  at  the  menopause  coincides  with  the 
shrinkage  of  the  ovaries  that  takes  place  at  that  period.    Activity 


THE  RHYTHMS  OF  SEX  161 

of  the  breasts  parallels  indeed  more  or  less  the  activity  of  the 
corpus  luteum. 

With  the  prolonged  activity  of  the  corpus  luteum  during  preg- 
nancy, prolonged  stimulation  of  the  breasts  occurs.  The  secre- 
tion of  the  post-pituitary  would  now  cause  the  change  from  the 
internal  cell  secretion  to  milk.  But  it  is  inhibited  from  so  doing 
by  the  placenta.  When  the  placenta  is  removed,  after  labor,  the 
post-pituitary  can  act,  and  a  free  flow  of  milk  is  established. 
However,  to  counterbalance  this,  and  to  prevent  the  post- 
pituitary  from  overacting,  the  breasts  secrete  a  hormone  with  an 
action  like  that  of  placenta,  but  not  so  strong,  which  tends  to 
inhibit  the  ovary.  So  is  put  off  the  imposition  of  a  pregnancy 
upon  a  period  of  lactation,  obviously  bad  for  mother,  infant,  and 
embryo.  We  have  here  an  exquisite  sample  of  the  checks  and 
compensations  which  make  for  a  self-balancing  of  the  whole  en- 
docrine system. 

Critical  Ages 

The  Dangerous  Age  is  a  phrase  coined  by  a  Scandinavian 
writer  as  a  more  dramatic  euphemism  for  the  time  of  life  when 
sex  function  ceases,  the  climacteric.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
age  of  adolescence  is  just  as  much  of  a  dangerous  age  as 
the  age  of  deliquescence.  The  only  difference  between  them 
is  that  the  dangers  of  the  one  have  been  hushed  up,  the  dangers 
of  the  other  well  boomed  and  advertised.  Both  are  dangerous  to 
the  individual,  because  both  are  periods  of  instability  and  read- 
justment of  the  cells,  particularly  the  brain  cells,  to  a  deranged 
endocrine  system  and  blood  chemistry. 

Moral  attitudes  differ  at  the  two  ages,  not  so  much  as  an 
effect  of  experience,  as  expressions  of  different  visceral  pressures 
produced  by  newly  dominant  internal  secretions.  So  in  Eugene 
O'Neil's  play,  "Diff'rent,"  we  see  the  woman  Emma  Crosby  as 
she  is  in  her  youth,  when  her  ovaries  have  budded  and  bloomed 
for  only  a  few  years,  and  her  other  endocrine  influences 
are  still  dormant.  She  breaks  off  her  engagement  to  Captain 
Caleb  Williams  on  the  eve  of  her  wedding  because  she  is  informed 
of  the  episodes  of  a  sex  affair  he  was  involved  in  on  his  last  voy- 
age, under  circumstances  not  discreditable  to  him.  The  next  act 
shows  her  thirty  years  later  when,  as  an  elderly  spinster,  she  is 
passing  through  the  climacteric,  and  is  in  the  state  of  sexual 


162     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

hyperesthesia  some  women  are  afflicted  with  before  the  meno- 
pause. It  is  as  if  the  ovaries  and  the  accessory  sex  internal 
secretions  erupt  into  a  sort  of  final  geyser  before  they  are  ex- 
hausted. So  the  captain,  ever  faithful,  finds  her,  and  discovers 
to  his  horror  that  she  is  a  thousand  times  more  like  other  women 
than  he  has  ever  been  like  other  men.  Because  of  his  ignorance 
of  the  underlying  chemical  basis  for  the  transfiguration,  tragedy 
follows.  Critics  may  cackle  about  a  sex  starved  woman,  who 
has  repressed  her  natural  desires,  and  hail  the  play  as  a  contri- 
bution to  the  Freudian  clinics.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  a 
study  of  libido  variation,  with  endocrine  variation,  at  two  stages 
of  the  inner  chemical  life  of  a  woman. 

The  chain  of  events  at  the  menopause,  the  acme  and  then  ebb 
of  the  sex  tide,  may  be  summed  up  something  like  this: 

The  ovaries  cease  producing  their  eggs  and  so  shrivel  as  a 
storage  battery  atrophies  when  it  dries  up.  An  important  mem- 
ber of  the  endocrine  board  of  directors  thus  drops  out,  and  so  a 
rearrangement  of  gland  activities,  a  new  regime,  becomes  neces- 
sary. If  a  balance  of  power  is  established  quickly  and  equitably, 
very  little  happens.  Quickly  the  woman  passes  on  to  the  next 
plane  of  her  existence.  But  if  some  endocrine  proves  recalcitrant, 
and  takes  advantage  of  the  situation  to  make  itself  dominant, 
trouble  and  maladjustment,  and  their  psychic  echoes,  come.  An- 
terior pituitary  control  will  mean  a  relative  masculinization,  with 
hair  on  the  face  and  aggressive  attitudes.  Post-pituitary  most 
often  refuses  to  settle  down,  and  expressing  its  ambition  as  head- 
aches, flushes,  obesity  and  hysteria,  may  cause  extreme  misery 
and  unhappiness  to  its  possessor.  Sooner  or  later,  if  the  har- 
monious equilibrium  of  the  normal  life  is  to  be  revived,  all  the 
glands  must  regress,  thyroid,  pituitary  and  adrenals. 

With  the  waning  of  the  ovarian  function,  the  thyroid  type  will 
also  exhibit  its  particular  flare.  If  there  is  thyroid  excess  the 
woman  will  be  excitable  and  irritable,  the  thyroid  deficient  will 
be  depressed  and  dull,  the  thyroid  unstable  (that  is  swinging  be- 
tween excess  and  deficiency)  will  have  a  cyclic  up  and  down 
alternation  of  mood  and  temperament.  The  adrenal  centered 
will  have  a  high  blood  pressure  and  masculinoid  traits,  the  adrenal 
inferior  will  have  a  low  blood  pressure  and  suffer  from  a  con- 
stant weakness  and  fatigability.  So  each  form  of  reaction  to 
the  critical  ages  is  individualized  according  to  the  predominating 
glandular  influence  in  the  constitution  of  the  woman.  When  the 
womb  has  atrophied,  and  the  breasts  have  shrunk,  the  typical 


THE  RHYTHMS  OF  SEX  163 

tan  complexion,  and  the  angular  niasculinoid  figure,  face  and 
psyche  follow,  and  the  transfiguration  has  been  completed. 

Man  has  his  critical  age  of  sex  cell  deterioration  as  well  as 
woman.  The  age  period  swings  between  forty-five  and  fifty-five. 
Here  enters  upon  the  scene  that  organ  of  external  and  internal 
secretion,  the  prostate,  the  most  important  of  the  accessory  sex 
glands  in  the  male.  Experiments  with  its  extract  upon  growing 
tadpoles  have  demonstrated  it  to  have  the  same  differentiating 
effects  as  thyroid,  but  without  the  poisoning  effects.  Further- 
more, the  microscope  reveals  cyclic  changes  in  its  cells  compar- 
able to  the  menstrual  phenomena  of  the  uterus.  Indeed  it  is 
accepted  as  the  homologue  or  male  representative  of  the  uterus. 
Small  and  undeveloped  during  childhood,  its  growth  at  puberty 
parallels  that  of  the  other  reproductive  organs.  Its  secretion  has 
been  shown  to  be  necessary  to  the  vitality  of  the  sperm  cells. 
The  regression  of  the  prostate,  its  retirement  from  the  field  of  sex 
competition,  is  the  central  episode  of  the  male  climacteric.  Ac- 
companying its  shrinking  are  prominent  an  irritable  weakness, 
despondency,  and  melancholia,  which  may  emerge  at  any  time 
if  there  is  disease  or  disturbance  of  it.  The  influence  of  the 
prostate  upon  man's  mental  condition,  and  its  contribution  to 
the  sex  index,  still  remains  to  be  investigated  in  detail. 

Sex  Crises 

At  the  periods  of  interstitial  cell  hyperactivity,  when  a  wave 
of  radicalism  in  the  blood  sweeps  through  the  tissues,  the  other 
endocrines  are  tested,  and  their  latent  stability  or  instability  is 
made  manifest.  Even  before  puberty,  cyclic  variations  of  health 
and  conduct  may  be  observed  in  boys  and  girls  which  undoubtedly 
depend  upon  currents  among  the  internal  secretions.  Children, 
who,  in  the  best  of  circumstances,  habitually  are  attacked  by  a 
wanderlust  and  run  away  from  home,  or  suffer  from  fits  of 
naughtiness,  are  samples  of  such  endocrine  lability.  Children 
specialists  have  found  that  at  about  the  end  of  the  second  year 
their  charges  begin  to  individuate.  In  a  certain  percentage,  sex 
traits  appear  pretty  early.  But  the  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  it 
is  rather  the  minority  of  girls  wTho  spontaneously  exhibit  the  tra- 
ditional stigmata  of  the  natural  girl.  The  doll-cherishing,  house- 
keeping imitator  of  mother  is  another  story. 

At  puberty  arise  the  most  exquisite  cases  of  life  crisis  de- 
pendent upon  hormonic  crisis.    The  boy  becomes  restless,  irritable 


164     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

and  quick-tempered  when  his  thyroid  and  adrenals  respond  to 
the  call  of  the  interstitial  cells.  If  they  do  not,  he  will  become 
dull,  heavy,  lazy  and  listless.  The  girl  correspondingly  is  trans- 
formed into  a  vivacious,  gay,  nervous  and  apprehensive  butterfly, 
or  a  sedate,  dreamy,  bashful,  or  even  morose  moth.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  note  that  poise,  mental  equilibrium,  is  not  established 
until  physical  growth  ceases,  marked  by  a  cessation  of  growth 
of  the  long  bones  known  as  ossification  of  the  epiphyses.  Poise 
seems  to  be  controlled  by  the  ante-pituitary.  The  growth  of  the 
long  bones  is  also  dominated  by  the  ante-pituitary.  It  would 
6eem  as  if,  its  secretion  dedicated  to  the  one  function,  could  not 
be  available  for  the  other.  So  it  happens  that  those  in  whom 
growth  ceases  early  (probably  because  of  an  earlier  and  more 
vigorous  invasion  of  the  internal  secretion  system  by  the  inter- 
stitial cell  product),  develop  mental  maturity  more  rapidly  and 
possess  more  of  it  than  those  in  whom  growth  continues.  The 
acumen  and  salacity  of  certain  dwarfs  is  proverbial.  The  puberty 
phenomena  teach  that  sex  crises  of  every  sort  are  dependent 
fundamentally  upon  fluctuations,  periodic  or  aperiodic,  of  the  sex 
index,  as  we  have  defined  it. 

The  Determining  Factors  of  Sex  Life 

The  material  summarized  in  the  preceding  paragraphs  furnish 
some  slight  inkling  of  the  vast  dominion  of  Sex,  in  all  its  rela- 
tions, somatic  and  spiritual,  over  which  the  glands  of  internal 
secretions  rule.  The  founder  of  modern  pathology,  Virchow, 
baid  that  woman  is  woman  because  of  her  ovaries.  He  meant 
that  woman  is  a  woman,  the  sort  of  woman  she  specifically  is, 
because  of  her  internal  secretions.  But  no  divine  decree  has 
laid  down  a  line  of  cleavage  between  man  and  woman.  There 
are  fundamental  constitutional  differences  between  man  and 
woman.  But  it  is  just  as  true  that  man  is  man  because  of  his 
internal  secretions. 

We  have  seen  that  the  concepts  of  Man  and  Woman  are  the 
end-points  of  a  curve  including  variations  of  every  possible  com- 
bination that  are  embraced  in  the  construction  of  a  sex  index. 
This  sex  index  is  not  an  absolute  constant,  although  its  range  of 
fluctuation  is  pretty  well  fixed  at  birth.  It  varies  from  day  to 
day,  year  to  year,  depending  upon  the  influences  that  have  been 
brought  to  bear  upon  it.  But  it  determines  the  character  of  the 
three  planes  of  sex:  the  endocrine,  the  vegetative,  and  the  psychic. 


THE  RHYTHMS  OF  SEX  165 

The  endocrine  is  concerned  with  the  fundamental  chemistry  of 
sex,  the  internal  secretions,  which  determine  the  chemical  reac- 
tions that  provide  the  free  energy  for  the  sex  process.  Upon  the 
vegetative  plane  occur  those  transformations,  tensions,  and  re- 
laxations, in  the  viscera,  which  are  controlled  in  part  by  the 
endocrines  and  in  part  by  the  experiences  of  the  individual  as 
registered  in  his  subconscious.  Upon  the  psychic,  conscious 
planes  appear  the  echoes  and  reflections  of  the  occurrences  upon 
the  other  two  planes,  as  well  as  reactions  arising  in  the  brain 
from  the  necessity  of  the  organism  reacting  as  a  whole  to  isolated 
episodes.  Accompanying  is  a  self-awareness  of  the  organism  as  a 
unit.  The  three  planes  are  not  like  separate  plates  of  glass  one 
raised  above  the  other,  the  usual  idea  picture  of  planes.  They 
are  nebulae,  swirling  into  each  other,  influencing  and  being  influ- 
enced continually.  The  reactions  among  these  three  complexes 
of  sex  create  the  milieu  for  the  variations  and  aberrations  of 
tendency,  character  and  conduct  which  stamp  his  unique  quality 
upon  the  individual.  Sex  morale  is  likewise  so  influenced.  The 
fundamentals  of  sex  ethics  will,  in  due  time,  be  revised  in  accord- 
ance with  these  conceptions. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
HOW  THE  GLANDS  INFLUENCE  THE  MIND 

It  is  impossible  to  review  here  in  detail  all  the  facts  accumu- 
lated concerning  the  influence  of  the  internal  secretions  upon  all 
the  processes  of  mind,  intellectual  and  emotional.  A  volume 
would  not  suffice  for  their  adequate  consideration.  Reflexes,  in- 
stincts, habits,  tendencies  and  emotions  are  involved  in  their 
machinery.  The  development  and  normal  functioning  of  the 
intellect,  the  pure  reason  as  Kant  called  it,  are  controlled  by 
them.  Brain,  without  them  in  solution,  without  enough  of  them 
in  that  wonderful  solution,  the  blood,  sleeps  or  remains  dormant 
like  the  butterfly  in  the  cocoon.  The  cretin,  who  has  not  enough 
thyroid  or  no  thyroid,  is  an  imbecile  because  of  his  deficiency. 
Supply  him  with  thyroid  from  outside  sources,  feed  him  animal 
thyroid,  be  it  of  the  sheep,  the  pig,  or  the  goat,  and  behold  a 
miracle!  he  is  restored  to  the  level  of  at  least  the  relatively  nor- 
mal intelligence. 

Acuteness  of  perception,  memory,  logical  thought,  imagination, 
conception,  emotional  expression  or  inhibition  and  the  entire  con- 
tent of  consciousness  are  influenced  by  the  internal  secretions. 
The  most  ultramicroscopic  activities  of  the  molecules  and  atoms 
in  the  highest  nerve  cells  and  nerve  tissues  are  dominated.  The 
speed  of  their  chemistry  and  their  associations,  and  thus  the  speed 
of  thought,  are  regulated.  Iodine  has  been  shown  to  increase  the 
electric  conductivity  of  the  brain  that  is,  the  rate  at  which  elec- 
trons will  fly  through  it.  The  thyroid  may  then  be  regarded 
as  manipulating  the  amount  of  iodine  brought  to  play  upon  the 
brain  cells  at  a  particular  moment  of  danger  or  exaltation. 
Adrenalin  increases  the  electric  conductivity  of  the  brain.  Nerve 
impulses,  and  with  them  sensations  and  ideas,  travel  faster  or 
flow  more  quickly  through  iodinized  or  adrenalinized  brain  cells. 
In  dangerous  situations  we  think  more  rapidly  and  keenly,  for 
in  emergencies  the  blood  floods  the  brain  with  extra  thyroid  and 
adrenal  secretions. 

166 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  INFLUENCE  THE  MIND     167 

The  Body-Mind  Complex 

Mind,  still  regarded  by  most  of  mankind  as  something  dis- 
tinct and  apart  from  the  body,  is  thus  exhibited  as  but  part  and 
parcel  of  it.  A  deaf,  dumb,  and  blind  animal,  deprived  of  tongue, 
and  olfactory  mucous  membrane,  without  sensations  from  the 
outside  world  can  grow  no  mind,  in  the  sense  of  intelligence. 
The  sense  organs  of  the  body  mediate  the  primary  mind  stuff. 
Without  internal  secretions  and  a  vegetative  system  there  could 
be  no  soul,  in  the  sense  of  complex  emotion.  Nor  those  combi- 
nations of  thought  and  emotion  which  synthesize  attitudes,  sen- 
timents and  character.  The  internal  secretions  and  the  vegeta- 
tive system  mediate  the  primary  soul  stuff.  Mind  is  thus 
emulsified  with  body  as  a  matter  of  cold  literal  fact.  The  soul 
was  once  a  subtlety  of  metaphysics.  Now  when  mind  appears 
soaked  in  matter  saturated  with  chemicals  like  the  hormones, 
therefore  woven  out  of  material  threads,  the  independent  entity 
created  out  of  intangible  spirit  flies  like  a  ghost  at  dawn. 

View  the  outlook.  Mind,  the  slippery  phantom,  now  becomes 
controllable  for  the  purposes  of  everyday  life,  because  we  can 
put  our  fingers  upon,  touch,  handle  and  change  these  material 
factors,  the  internal  secretions  and  the  vegetative  system. 
Through  them  we  may  affect  the  very  quality  of  the  nerve  tissue. 
The  future  of  the  race,  the  future  of  human  nature,  depends  upon 
the  knowledge  to  be  born  of  the  researches  into  the  vast  possibili- 
ties of  this  idea.  Man,  the  Adventurer,  the  prey  of  Chance  and 
Luck,  will  then  become,  indeed  now  becomes,  the  Captain  of 
Fate  and  Destiny. 

It  is,  of  itself,  a  revolution  in  the  intellect,  to  conceive  of  in- 
stincts and  emotions,  suggestibility  and  contra-suggestibility, 
initiative  and  imitation,  volitions  and  inhibitions  as  chemical 
matters.  In  all  their  relations,  mutually  reacting  effects  and 
defects,  excesses  and  deficiencies,  the  internal  secretions  set  up 
psychic  echoes  and  reflections.  When  morbid  and  their  equilib- 
rium dislocated,  we  may  even  have  phobias  and  neuroses. 

A  man's  nature  is  essentially  his  endocrine  nature.  Primarily, 
when  he  is  born,  he  represents  a  particular  inherited  combination 
of  different  glands  of  internal  secretion.  They,  constituting  the 
inventory  of  his  vital  stock  in  trade,  start  him  in  life.  After- 
wards, food,  the  routine  of  his  existence,  the  accidents  of  experi- 
ence, education,  disease  and  misfortune,  in  short,  environment, 
modify  him  because  they  modify  his  ductless  glands  and  his 


168      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

vegetative  apparatus,  as  well  as  his  brain,  depressing  some  parts, 
and  stimulating  others,  and  so  rearranging  the  system.  In  par- 
ticular will  he  be  transformed  as  the  gland  is  affected  which  is  the 
centre  of  the  system  to  which  the  others  adapt  and  accommodate 
themselves.  The  inertia  of  the  system  is  very  great,  almost  abso- 
lute, and  always  tends  to  return.  If  he  has  children,  he  hands  on 
his  constellation  of  endocrines,  in  spite  of  mishaps,  not  at  all  or 
only  slightly  transformed.  Sometimes,  however,  the  experiential 
transformation  has  been  sufficiently  deep,  and  shaken  the  very 
constitution  of  his  germ-plasm.  So  family  dispositions  and 
traits,  national  and  racial  temperaments,  are  propagated,  main- 
tained and  varied. 

The  Sex  Instincts 

Hormone  reactions,  as  we  have  seen,  initiate  the  complicated 
forces,  processes  and  expressions  of  sex.  The  dictum  of  the 
founder  of  modern  pathology,  Virchow,  that  Woman  was  in  effect 
an  appendix  to  the  ovaries,  has  long  been  taken  to  apply  to  her 
psychic  traits  as  well  as  somatic.  Her  mind,  like  her  skin,  her 
hair  and  her  pelvis,  is  a  product  of  the  ovarian  endocrines.  But 
these  determinations  are  by  no  means  her  monopoly.  Man  is 
likewise  a  creation  of  the  chemical  wheels  within  wheels  and 
springs  within  springs  that  are  his  glands  of  internal  secretion. 
That  he  is  not  so  obviously  an  appendix  to  his  testes  is  due  to 
two  reasons.  First,  the  male  sex  hormones  have  not  the  insta- 
bility nor  cyclic  rhythmicity  of  the  female.  Secondly,  and  per- 
haps consequently,  his  sex  instincts  have  become  overlayered 
with  other  more  labile  instincts,  with  habits  and  customs  and 
necessities  that  appear  to  oust  the  sex  instinct  into  an  altogether 
decentralized  position.  Moreover,  it  is  the  function  of  the  female 
to  be  the  excitor  in  the  sex  process:  her  subconscious,  thoroughly 
aware  of  the  fact,  sees  to  it  that  the  sex  instinct  stands  starkly 
central  and  dominating  in  her  life. 

The  moods  of  love,  like  the  more  stereotyped  manifestations 
of  sex,  are  dependent  upon  a  proper  supply  to  the  blood  of  the 
internal  secretions  of  the  reproductive  organs,  the  gonadal  en- 
docrines. If  the  testes  are  removed  from  frogs,  it  is  found  that 
the  clasp-reflex,  symptom  of  sex  desire,  is  abolished.  If,  after  an 
interval  of  several  days,  the  testes'  extract  is  injected  into  the 
frog,  the  reflex  reappears  for  a  few  days.  The  hormone  pro- 
voking this  sex  reflex  is  present  in  the  testes  only  during  the 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  INFLUENCE  THE  MIND     169 

breeding  season.  In  birds,  the  seasonal  nesting  and  migrating 
instincts  may  be  eliminated  by  interfering  with  their  ovaries. 
At  the  same  time  there  is  a  change  in  their  plumage  toward  the 
male  type.  Similarly,  the  males,  when  their  sex  endocrines  are 
cut  off,  will  change  their  psychic  nature  as  well  as  physically. 
Besides  owning  his  flag-waving  comb,  his  spurs  and  brighter 
feathers,  the  rooster  struts  to  attract  the  female,  and  fights 
aggressively  with  his  sex  competitors.  When  he  is  made  a  capon, 
he  loses  his  spurs  and  comb  and  distinctive  plumage,  and  in 
addition  becomes  retiring  and  submissive,  in  short,  a  pseudo-hen 
in  his  instincts  as  well  as  in  appearance.  If  the  genital  glands 
are  extirpated  from  a  male  before  puberty,  the  wattles  remain 
small,  pale  and  bloodless,  no  active,  amorous  or  combative  in- 
stinct emerges.  The  creature  maintains  a  demure  silence,  and 
may  even  be  sought  by  a  virile  male.  So  we  may  see  homo- 
sexuality of  a  kind  in  the  lowest  animals.  On  the  other  hand, 
hens  deprived  of  ovaries  tend  to  metamorphose  in  the  male  direc- 
tion, even  to  acquire  the  male  spurs,  and  to  display  the  male 
attitudes. 

All  through  the  animal  world,  in  the  springtime,  when  the 
pituitary  awakens  or  increases  its  secretion,  and  so  stimulates  the 
sex  glands  to  augmented  activity,  emotions  of  sex  and  their  ex- 
pression are  provoked  by  the  inner  stirring.  When  the  nightin- 
gale warbles  passionately  and  the  mocking  bird  gurgles  provok- 
ingly,  when  the  robin  fills  its  scarlet  breast  and  the  starling  floats 
in  ecstasy  through  the  perfumed  air,  when  the  pigeon  coyly  woos 
its  mate,  and  the  butterfly  flirts  with  the  dazzling  multicolors  of 
its  wings,  when  all  the  marvelous  devices  of  sex  attraction  in 
nature,  selection  and  courting,  mating  and  reproducing  are  pon- 
dered, who  but  must  wonder  at  the  infinite  possibilities  of 
reaction  of  the  sex  hormones?  All  is  for  love,  and  all  is  because 
of  the  love  in  the  blood  that  is  manufactured  unconsciously  by  a 
few  hidden  cells. 

Expressionism  and  Exhibitionism 

We  need  a  detailed  examination  of  the  various  forms  of  ex- 
pression art  has  differentiated  into,  in  its  relation  to  exhibition- 
ism and  as  effects  of  the  circulating  libido-producing  substance 
of  the  gonads.  Sex  exhibition  differs  in  man  and  woman  because 
of  the  differently  combined  internal  secretions  that  are  their 
substrates.    The  male's  attitude,  aggressive  pursuit,  is  instigated 


170     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

by  the  compound  adrenal  and  gonad  endocrines.  The  female's 
various  emulsions  of  coyness  and  display  are  motivated  by  pos- 
terior pituitary  and  gonad  hormones  in  alliance. 

It  is  a  dogma  to  state  that  the  internal  secretions  of  sex  do  not 
begin  to  function  until  after  puberty.  Some  children  manifest 
exhibitionism  with  a  certain  independence  of  environment  Be- 
fore adolescence  a  good  many  girls  act  like  tom-boys,  and  are 
distinguishable  externally  from  boys  only  by  their  clothes.  But 
others  display  signs  of  sex  differentiation  that  are  to  be  traced 
back  to  an  awakening  interstitial  gonad  action.  Some  boys  have 
no  interest  whatever  in  sex.  Others  will  show  an  intense  curiosity 
spontaneously,  a  curiosity  which  perhaps  may  be  explained  as  a 
larval  precocity,  dependent  upon  the  minimum  of  sex  hormone 
production  by  the  gonads.  Close  observation  of  the  correlation 
of  somatic  and  psychic  development  in  extreme  examples  of  these 
children  corroborates  this  view.  Jonathan  Hutchinson  has  de- 
scribed full-busted  children  of  London  already  boasting  of  their 
affairs.  Indeed,  as  education  and  environment  affect  the  body 
(in  so  far  as  they  influence  it  as  a  whole)  by  exciting  or 
inhibiting  the  glands  of  internal  secretion,  sex-arousing  stimuli 
from  without  must  be  considered  to  evoke  their  effects  as  stimu- 
lants of  the  latent  puberty  glands. 

At  puberty,  when  the  sex  glands  bloom,  and  the  complex  of 
the  sex  instincts  is  activated,  exhibitionism  manifests  itself  in  a 
host  of  guises  and  disguises.  Femininity  in  a  woman,  the 
womanly  woman,  or  the  eternal  feminine,  may  indeed  be  defined 
by  the  degree  of  somatic  and  psychic  exhibitionism  she  presents. 
A  woman  who  has  a  delicate  skin,  lovely  complexion,  well- 
formed  breasts  and  menstruates  freely  will  be  found  to  have  the 
typical  feminine  outlook  on  life,  aspirations  and  reactions  to 
stimuli,  which,  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  our  feminists,  do  con- 
stitute the  biologic  feminine  mind.  Large,  vascular,  balanced 
ovaries  are  the  well-springs  of  her  life  and  personality.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  woman  who  menstruates  poorly  or  not  at  all  is 
coarse-featured,  flat-breasted,  heavily  built,  angular  in  her  out- 
lines, will  also  be  often  aggressive,  dominating,  even  enterprising 
and  pioneering,  in  short,  masculinoid.  She  is  what  she  is  because 
she  possesses  small,  shrivelled,  poorly  functioning  ovaries.  Be- 
tween these  two  types  all  sorts  of  transitions  exist,  according 
as  the  other  endocrines  participate  in  the  constitutional  make-up. 
But  no  better  examples  could  be  given,  off-hand,  of  the  determin- 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  INFLUENCE  THE  MIND     171 

ing  stamp  of  the  internal  secretions  upon  mind,  character  and 
conduct. 

Instinct  and  Behaviour 

The  sex  instinct,  analyzed  as  an  endocrine  mechanism,  pro- 
vides the  clue  to  the  understanding  of  all  instinct  and  behaviour. 
If  the  post-pituitary  regulates  the  maternal  instinct,  then  its 
correlates:  sympathy,  social  impulses,  and  religious  feeling,  must 
be  also  influenced,  and  so  is  furnished  another  example  of  a 
chemical  control  of  instinctive  behaviour.  McDougall,  once  of 
Oxford,  now  of  Harvard,  introduced  into  psychology  the  idea 
of  the  simple  instinct  as  a  unit  of  behaviour,  regarding  the  most 
complex  conduct  as  a  compounding  of  instincts.  The  instinct 
itself  he  analyzed  into  three  elements:  a  specific  stimulus-sensa- 
tion, an  emotion  following,  all  ending  in  a  particular  course  of 
muscular  reaction.  Translated  into  endocrine  terms,  what  hap- 
pens may  be  pictured  as  a  series  of  chemical  events. 

When  the  activity  of  a  ductless  gland  rises  above  a  certain 
minimum,  its  hormones  in  the  blood  sensitize,  as  a  photographic 
plate  is  sensitized,  a  group  of  brain  cells,  to  respond  to  a  message 
from  the  outside  world,  with  a  definite  line  of  conduct.  There 
is  a  registration  by  the  brain  cells  of  the  presence  of  the  specific 
stimulus.  Then  there  is  communication  by  them  with  the  en- 
docrine organs.  As  a  result,  some  of  them  are  moved  to  further 
secretion,  and  others  are  paralyzed  or  weakened.  In  consequence 
of  changes  of  concentration  in  the  blood  of  the  various  internal 
secretions,  tensions,  movements  and  tumescences,  as  well  as  re- 
laxations, inhibitions  and  detumescences,  occur  throughout  the 
vegetative  system — the  blood  vessels,  the  viscera,  the  nerves  and 
the  muscles.  Each  wires  to  the  brain  news  of  the  change  in  it. 
In  addition,  the  brain  cells  themselves  are  excited  or  depressed 
by  the  new  hormones  bathing  them.  In  their  final  fusion,  the 
commingling  vegetative  sensations  constitute  the  emotion  evolved 
in  the  functioning  of  the  instinct. 

To  lower  the  new  tensions  throughout  the  vegetative  system 
to  the  normal  range,  the  instinctive  action  is  carried  out.  This 
superficially  is  regarded  as  the  essence  of  the  instinct.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  it  is  only  the  endpoint  of  a  process,  the  resultant 
of  a  drive  to  restore  equilibrium  within  the  organism.  It  may 
all  happen  in  less  time  than  it  takes  to  tell  about  it. 


172      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

The  play  of  an  instinct  may  therefore  be  analyzed  into  four 
processes.  They  succeed  one  another  as  sensation — endocrine 
stimulation — tension  within  the  vegetative  system — conduct  to 
relieve  tension.  The  dash  is  the  symbol  of  a  cause  and  effect 
relationship. 

This  equation  for  an  instinct,  based  upon  an  analysis  of  the 
working  of  the  sex  instinct,  is  the  model  for  the  analysis  of  all 
instincts,  and  therefore  of  all  the  compounded  instincts  that  all 
human  behaviour  may  be  resolved  into.  Conduct,  that  fascinator 
of  the  common  gossip  and  the  great  novelist  alike,  normal  and 
abnormal,  social  and  asocial,  in  all  their  complexities,  even  unto 
the  third  and  fourth  generation,  the  Freudian  complexes,  is  gov- 
erned therefore  by  the  same  laws  that  determine  the  movements 
of  the  stars  and  the  eruptions  of  volcanoes.  The  most  interest- 
ing factor  in  the  instinct  equation  is  the  endocrine,  because  that 
is  the  one  that  is  most  purely  chemical. 

Endocrine  Charging  of  Wishes 

It  is  the  distinction  of  modern  psychology  that  it  has  estab- 
lished the  wish  (craving,  need,  desire,  libido)  as  the  moving  force 
in  any  psychic  process.  The  position  of  the  wish  in  psychology 
as  the  force  within  and  behind  the  instinct  may  be  compared 
to  that  of  energy  in  physics,  when  it  was  elevated  to  a  central 
position  in  the  explanation  of  physical  processes  in  the  nine- 
teenth century.  The  concept  of  the  charged  wish  has  illuminated 
all  the  hidden  recesses  and  rendered  audible  all  the  subdued  mur- 
murings  of  the  mind.  The  truly  novel  in  the  content  of  the  idea 
is  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  wish  is  charged.  Now  it 
could  never  be  charged  in  a  vacuum.  That  means  that  a  wish 
could  never  be  born  in  the  brain  alone.  For  the  brain  has  no 
power  to  charge  itself  with  energy — it  can  only  store  and  trans- 
mit. If  a  wish  is  potential  energy  that  must  be  transformed  into 
kinetic,  it  must  have  a  source.  That  source  is  the  vegetative 
system.  Without  the  vegetative  system,  the  great  complex  of 
viscera  in  the  abdomen  and  chest,  blood  and  its  vessels,  en- 
docrines,  muscles  and  nerves,  the  brain  would  remain  but  an 
intricate  cold  storage  plant  of  memories,  associations  of  past 
experiences.  It  would  need  no  change  and  initiate  no  effort. 
But  when  the  wish  enters  upon  the  scene,  it  is  as  if  a  dead 
storage  battery  has  been  refreshed  with  new  current.  Enriched 
with  billions  of  electrons  there  is  a  stir  and  a  movement,  dynamic 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  INFLUENCE  THE  MIND     173 

mind.  But  the  dynamo  is  the  more  ancient  possession  of  the 
animal,  the  vegetative  apparatus.  In  short,  what  must  always  be 
remembered  is  that  a  wish  is  never  cerebral,  but  always  sub- 
cerebral,  visceral,  in  its  origins. 

The  sub-cerebral  makes  the  cerebral.  Activities  in  the  nervous 
system  below  the  brain  and  especially  the  vegetative  system, 
force  upon  it  its  function  of  the  active  verb.  It  has  to  be,  to  do, 
and  to  suffer,  and  then  to  manipulate  the  environment  to  satiate 
the  insatiable  viscera,  insatiable  because  the  local  chemistry  is 
continually  raising  the  tension  of  one  or  the  other  of  them. 
A  physics  of  human  behaviour  becomes  possible  with  the  aid  of 
these  concepts  of  endocrine  regulation  of  intra-visceral  pressure, 
and  intervisceral  equilibrium,  an  intramuscular  pressure  and  an 
intermuscular  equilibrium,  with  the  brain  as  the  shifting  fulcrum 
of  the  system. 

The  sensation  of  hunger,  as  we  have  seen,  serves  as  good  an 
exemplar  as  any  of  this  mechanism  of  the  wish.  Hunger  is 
preceded  and  accompanied  by  contractions  of  the  stomach  of  in- 
creasing intensity.  Those  contractions  must  be  brought  about 
by  a  substance  acting  upon  the  nerve  endings  in  the  wall  of 
the  stomach.  As  it  closes  down  upon  itself,  waves  pass  up  and 
down.  With  each  wave,  the  pressure  within  it  rises.  The  exact 
amount  of  the  pressure  may  be  accurately  measured  by  means 
of  a  small  balloon  swallowed  and  then  inflated.  When  the  pres- 
sure rises  above  a  certain  figure,  the  sensation  of  hunger  breaks 
into  the  consciousness  of  the  individual.  We  infer  that  certain 
sensory  impulses  sent  up  to  the  brain  attain  a  strength  that 
finally  forces  itself  into  the  conscious  field  of  feeling.  The  sen- 
sation of  hunger  varies  from  individual  to  individual  because 
of  variation  in  the  reaction  throughout  the  vegetative  system. 
Most  often  it  is  a  sense  of  movement  or  even  an  itch  in  the  upper 
abdomen.  Let  some  cause  produce  a  weakening  or  cessation  of 
the  movements  of  the  stomach — as  fear  and  anger — and  the  sen- 
sation of  hunger  disappears  coincidently  with  the  drop  in  the 
pressure  within  it.  As  the  mathematicians  would  say,  the  wish 
is  a  function  of  the  pressure,  and  so  of  the  concentration  of 
substance  behind  the  pressure. 

We  have  in  hunger  the  wish  reduced  to  the  lowest  terms,  the 
most  primitive  form  of  it.  Yet  we  may  resolve  all  wishes,  even 
the  most  idealistic,  into  the  same  terms.  As  the  vegetative  sys- 
tem becomes  habituated  by  repeated  experience  to  react  in  the 
same  way  to  the  same  stimulus,  permutations  and  combinations  of 


174     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

wishes  become  possible  until  at  length  the  inscrutable  complexi- 
ties of  the  behaviour  of  civilized  man  are  evolved.  We  have  to 
thank  Von  Bechterew,  the  greatest  of  Russian  physiologists,  for 
these  fundamental  principles,  so  important  for  the  understanding 
of  the  control  of  human  life  and  conduct. 

The  associated  reflex,  aboriginal  ancestor  of  the  involved  train 
of  associations  that  constitute  the  highest  thought,  conduct  and 
character,  is  the  unit  of  the  system.  Recall  the  classic  example 
cited.  If  a  piece  of  meat  is  shown  to  a  dog,  his  mouth  waters. 
If  now  you  proceed  to  ring  a  bell  before  offering  the  meat,  his 
mouth  will  water  only  when  he  sees  or  smells  the  meat.  If,  how- 
ever, the  ringing  of  the  bell  precedes  the  meat  a  sufficient  number 
of  reactions,  a  time  comes  when  merely  the  sound  of  the  bell  will 
cause  salivation,  without  the  presence  of  the  meat.  So  it  is  with 
the  associated  reactions  of  the  internal  secretions.  A  stimulus 
originally  indifferent  to  the  endocrines  may,  by  association,  the 
laws  of  which  are  many,  come  to  act  like  a  spark  to  the  endocrine- 
instinct  mechanism.  Hence  we  can  account  for  the  subtle  play 
of  instinct  throughout  all  thinking. 

Even  objects  resembling  the  specific  excitant  of  an  instinct 
only  remotely,  or  in  some  one  quality,  may  start  its  mechanism 
and  a  host  of  associations  bound  up  with  it.  Thus  the  maternal 
instinct  may  be  excited  by  the  sight  of  a  baby.  But  because  a 
baby  is  small  and  delicate,  anything  small  and  fine,  a  tiny  book, 
a  toy,  a  miniature,  may  arouse  it.  The  object  is  then  said  to  be 
appealing.  The  doctrine  of  association  of  instinctive  and  so  of 
endocrine  reactions  enables  us  to  understand  the  feeling — tone 
that  at  any  moment  pervades  consciousness  as  well  as  its  content. 

Choices,  the  psychology  of  selection  of  food,  color,  friends, 
mates,  amusements  also  become  explicable  rationally.  For 
conflicts  among  the  different  components  of  the  vegetative  sys- 
tem are  continuous  and  inevitable.  If  the  pressure  within  a 
viscus  has  been  heightened,  and  persists,  that  is,  is  not  disturbed 
by  some  other  associated  factor  or  instinct,  conduct  results  to 
lower  the  pressure  to  what  it  was  before  the  instigator  of  the 
tension  appeared.  But  if  another  instinct  is  sparked,  or  another 
associated  factor  comes  into  play,  another  focus  of  increased 
pressure  within  the  vegetative  system  is  created,  with  another 
stream  of  energy  flowing  to  the  brain  and  demanding  an  outlet. 
This  clash  of  instincts,  the  struggle  between  different  foci  of  the 
vegetative  system  competing  for  the  possession  of  the  brain,  is  a 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  INFLUENCE  THE  MIND     175 

common  everyday  process  in  conduct.     Which  will  win  means 
which  will  will.    And  so  we  have  an  energetic  basis  for  volition. 

Which  will  win  appears  to  depend  primarily  upon  the  kind  of 
endocrines  that  predominate  in  the  make-up  of  the  individual, 
secondarily  with  his  education.  For  it  is  the  endocrines  that  are 
really  in  conflict  when  there  is  a  struggle  between  two  instincts. 
And  if  one  endocrine  system  conquers,  it  must  be  either  because 
it  is  inherently  stronger,  its  secretion  potential,  that  is,  the  amount 
of  secretion  it  can  put  forth  as  a  maximum,  is  greater  (so  explain- 
ing the  term  dominant) — or  because  a  past  experience  has  con- 
ditioned it  to  respond,  although  the  opposing  endocrine  system 
does  not.  Fear  and  anger,  respectively  bound  up  with  the  activi- 
ties of  the  adrenal  medulla  and  cortex,  we  shall  see,  provide  as 
good  exemplars  as  any  of  this  process. 

The  response  of  the  ductless  glands  to  situations  varies  with 
their  congenital  capacity,  and  acquired  susceptibility.  Capacity 
is  a  question  of  internal  chemistry,  modifiable  by  injury,  disease, 
accident,  shock,  exhaustion.  Susceptibility  depends  upon  the 
play  of  the  forces  focusing  upon  them  that  may  be  summed  up 
as  associations.  In  the  ability  of  one  endocrine  system  to  inhibit 
another  we  have  the  germ  of  the  unconscious.  Hence  the  modus 
operandi  of  the  repressions  and  suppressions,  compensations  and 
dissociations,  which  may  unite  to  integrate  or  refuse  to  inte- 
grate, and  so  disintegrate  and  deteriorate  a  personality. 

As  the  personality  develops,  the  vegetative  system  becomes 
susceptible  to  the  manifold  associates  of  family,  school,  church 
and  society,  art,  science  and  religion,  and  last  but  not  least 
sex.  All  the  different  nuances  of  personality  are  expressions  of 
a  particular  relationship,  transitory  or  permanent,  between  the 
endocrines  and  the  viscera  and  muscles.  Conversely,  behaviour 
shows  what  a  person  actually  is  chemically;  that  is,  what  en- 
docrine and  vegetative  factors  predominate  in  his  make-up. 

Fear,  Anger,  and  Courage 

Fear  and  anger  are  the  oldest  and  so  the  most  deep-rooted  of 
the  instincts.  An  ameba,  contracting  at  the  touch  of  some  un- 
pleasant object,  feels  fear  in  its  most  primitive  form.  And  anger, 
the  destructive  passion,  must  have  appeared  early  upon  the  scene 
of  life.  Certainly  these  two  instincts  were  definitely  developed 
and  fixed  in  the  cells  before   sex  differentiation   and  the  sex 


176     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

instincts  were  born  at  all.  It  is  interesting  to  note  this  for  our 
rabid  Freudians. 

Fear  and  anger  involve  the  adrenal  gland.  How  comes  it 
that  two  states  of  mind  so  contrasted  should  involve  the  same 
area?  The  answer  lies  in  the  bipartite  construction  of  the 
adrenal.  All  the  evidence  points  to  its  medulla  as  the  secretor 
of  the  substance  which  makes  for  the  phenomena  of  fear,  and 
to  its  cortex  as  dominant  in  the  reactions  of  anger. 

When  adrenalin  is  injected  under  the  skin  in  sufficient  quan- 
tity, it  will  produce  paleness,  trembling,  erection  of  the  hair, 
twitching  of  the  limbs,  quick  or  gasping  breathing,  twitching  of 
the  lips — all  the  classic  manifestations  of  fear.  These  are  the 
immediate  effects  of  fear  because  they  are  the  immediate  effects 
of  excess  adrenalin  in  the  blood  upon  the  vegetative  viscera  and 
the  muscles.  The  perception  by  associative  memory  of  these 
effects  of  adrenalin,  the  sensations  arising  from  the  organs 
affected,  constitute  the  emotion  of  fear.  Flight  follows  by  muscle 
prepared  for  flight,  for  the  disturbance  of  the  inter-muscular 
equilibrium  tenses  the  flexor  muscles,  the  muscles  of  flight,  and 
relaxes  the  extensor  muscles,  the  muscles  of  attack. 

If,  it  would  seem,  the  cortex  secretion  now  pours  into  the  blood, 
enough  to  more  than  overcome  the  effects  of  the  medulla  secre- 
tion, the  inter-muscular  equilibrium  is  disturbed  in  the  opposite 
direction,  for  fight  rather  than  flight,  and  anger  results.  Or  if 
the  cortical  secretion  pours  in  an  overwhelming  amount  of  its 
secretion  from  the  first  into  the  blood  there  will  be  no  fear,  but 
anger  immediately.  Habitually  charging  and  fearless  animals 
like  the  bison,  bull,  tiger,  or  lion  have  a  relatively  larger  cortex 
in  their  adrenals.  Habitually  fleeing  and  fearful  animals,  like 
the  rabbit,  have  a  small  cortex  and  a  wide  medulla  in  their 
adrenals.  The  reinforcing  action  of  the  thyroid  is  important. 
The  adrenal  medulla  reinforced  by  the  thyroid  makes  for  terror, 
the  adrenal  cortex  reinforced  by  the  thyroid  makes  for  fury. 

Some  people  are  not  easily  frightened,  others  are  more  readily 
frightened,  and  still  others  are  of  an  extremely  fearful  nature. 
It  depends  upon  the  proportion  of  adrenal  cortex  to  medulla 
secretion  in  them.  And  their  reaction  to  fear  stimuli  is  a  pretty 
good  measure  of  the  ratio.  These  formulations  apply  more  par- 
ticularly to  fear  in  general  and  anger  in  general.  But  even  in 
the  least  fearsome,  i.  e.,  an  individual  in  whom  cortex  dominates 
medulla,  there  may  be  fear — complexes,  dating  back  to  events 
and  times  when  medulla  overtopped  cortex,  especially  childhood. 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  INFLUENCE  THE  MIND     177 

So  in  the  coolest  people,  certain  persons,  objects,  episodes,  may 
send  a  wave  along  an  old  line  of  nerve  cells  and  paths  which 
lead  to  the  adrenal  medulla,  and  so  flood  him  with  fear,  terror 
or  even  panic  before  his  usual  cortex  response  occurs.  Impres- 
sions during  the  early  years  of  childhood,  probing  of  the  uncon- 
scious by  various  methods,  have  been  shown  to  be  the  most  potent 
in  this  respect.  Sometimes  the  episode  goes  further  back  than 
childhood,  and  one  must  assume  an  inherited  conditioning  of  the 
vegetative  and  endocrine  systems.  An  animal  leaping  upon  an 
ancestor  in  a  forest  during  the  night  might  account  for  the 
panic  fear  some  people  experience  when  alone  in  the  dark,  that 
nothing  of  their  childhood  history  may  account  for. 

In  women,  the  adrenal  medulla  naturally  tends  to  overtop 
the  cortex,  because  the  latter  makes  for  masculinity.  Besides, 
the  recurring  cycle  in  the  ovary,  making  the  corpus  luteum, 
evolves  an  additional  stimulant  to  the  medulla,  through  its  irri- 
tating influence  upon  the  thyroid.  Then  the  influence  of  the  post- 
pituitary  is  anti-adrenal  cortex.  So  that,  on  the  whole,  a  num- 
ber of  endocrines  work  to  render  woman  naturally  fearful,  as  we 
say. 

Courage  is  so  closely  related  to  fear  and  anger  that  all  are 
always  associated  in  any  discussion.  Courage  is  commonly 
thought  of  as  the  emotion  that  is  the  opposite  of  fear.  It  would 
follow  that  courage  meant  simply  inhibition  of  the  adrenal  me- 
dulla. As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  meshanism  of  courage  is  more 
complex.  One  must  distinguish  animal  courage  and  deliberate 
courage.  Animal  courage  is  literally  the  courage  of  the  beast. 
As  noted,  animals  with  the  largest  amounts  of  adrenal  cortex  are 
the  pugnacious,  aggressive,  charging  kings  of  the  fields  and 
forests.  The  emotion  experienced  by  them  is  probably  anger  with 
a  sort  of  blood-lust,  and  no  consideration  of  the  consequences. 
The  object  attacked  acted  like  the  red  rag  waved  at  a  bull — it 
had  stimulated  a  flow  of  the  secretion  of  the  adrenal  cortex,  and 
the  instinct  of  anger  became  sparked,  as  it  were,  by  the  new 
condition  of  the  blood.  In  courage,  deliberate  courage,  there  is 
more  than  instinct.  There  is  an  act  of  volition,  a  display  of 
will.  Admitting  that  without  the  adrenal  cortex  such  courage 
would  be  impossible,  the  chief  credit  for  courage  must  be  ascribed 
to  the  ante-pituitary.  It  is  the  proper  conjunction  of  its  secre- 
tion and  that  of  the  adrenal  cortex  that  makes  for  true  courage. 
So  it  is  we  find  that  acts  of  courage  have  been  recorded  most 
often  of  individuals  of  the  ante-pituitary  type.    Photographs  are 


178      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

obtainable  of  thirty-four  winners  of  the  Congressional  Medal  of 
Honor  for  extraordinary  bravery  in  the  War  with  Germany.  Of 
these  twenty-three  exhibited  the  somatic  criteria  or  hormonic 
signs  of  the  ante-pituitary  type.  A  prerequisite  for  adequate 
ante-pituitary  function  is  a  normal  secretion  of  the  interstitial 
cells  of  the  reproductive  glands.  Cowardice  is  said  to  be  a  fea- 
ture of  eunuchs. 


The  Pituitary  and  Instinct 

We  have  seen  that,  more  than  any  other  gland  or  tissue  of  the 
body,  the  post-pituitary  governs  the  maternal-sexual  instincts 
and  their  sublimations,  the  social  and  creative  instincts.  A  great 
deal  of  evidence  is  in  our  possession  concerning  the  disturbances 
of  emotion  accompanying  disturbances  of  this  gland,  and  con- 
trollable by  its  control.  It  might  be  said  to  energize  deeply  the 
tender  emotions,  and  instead  of  saying  soft-hearted  we  should 
say  much-pituitarized.  For  all  the  basic  sentiments  (as  opposed 
to  the  intellectualized  self-protective  sentimentalism) ,  tender- 
heartedness, sympathy  and  suggestibility  are  interlocked  with 
its  functions.  Its  secretion  must  act  upon  the  great  basal  ganglia, 
at  the  base  of  the  brain,  which  contain  the  nerve  cells  and  fibres 
that  are  the  centers  of  emotional  control  and  co-ordination. 

The  ante-pituitary  has  been  depicted  as  the  gland  of  intel- 
lectuality (to  use  that  term  for  lack  of  better) .  By  intellectu- 
ality we  mean  the  capacity  of  the  mind  to  control  its  environ- 
ment by  concepts  and  abstract  ideas.  The  frontal  lobes  of  the 
brain  are  the  central  offices  for  higher  thought.  Their  cells  are 
the  most  complex,  have  the  most  numerous  branches  and  asso- 
ciation fibres.  They  store  the  fruits  of  abstract  thinking,  mathe- 
matics, for  example.  The  anterior  pituitary  is  in  the  closest 
relation  and  contact  with  them.  Its  secretion  is  tonic  to  them. 
Now  the  instinct  that  is  the  forerunner  of  intellectuality  is  the 
instinct  of  curiosity,  with  its  emotion  of  wonder,  and  its  ex- 
pression in  the  various  constructive  and  acquisitive  tendencies. 
Studies  of  intellectual  men,  and  of  those  with  a  keen  instinct  of 
curiosity  and  a  constructive-acquisitive  trend  prove  them  to  be 
ante-pituitary  dominant  in  their  make-up.  The  administration 
of  ante-pituitary  extract  to  some  defectives  increases  intellectual 
activity  and  self-control.  The  future  of  intelligence  may  expect 
a  great  deal  from  the  newer  chemistry  of  the  secretions  of  the 
ante-pituitary. 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  INFLUENCE  TJIE  MIND     179 

Two  most  important  instincts,  therefore,  which  in  the  com- 
plexity of  their  sublimations  have  created  most  of  the  institu- 
tions of  society,  the  maternal  and  the  intellectual,  are  connected 
directly  with  a  proper  function  of  the  pituitary  endocrines.  So 
it  happens  that  disturbances  of  these  instincts,  reaching  far  into 
the  normal  and  intellectual  spheres  of  the  mind,  are  definitely 
connected  with  disturbances  of  the  pituitary.  As  we  shall  note 
in  reviewing  the  essentials  of  the  pituitary-centered  or  pituito- 
centric  personality,  the  personality  governed  by  the  fluctuations 
of  activity  within  the  pituitary,  people  with  injured,  diseased  or 
mechanically  limited  pituitaries  (because  of  the  smallness  of  the 
bony  case  enclosing  them)  exhibit  defects  and  perversions  of 
conduct  and  intelligence  directly  attributable  to  affections  of  the 
very  instincts  and  functions  the  pituitary  governs.  Children  with 
small,  mechanically  cramped  pituitaries  lie  and  steal,  are  bed- 
wetters,  have  poor  control  over  themselves,  and  a  low  learning 
capacity. 

The  Thyroid  and  Instinct 

The  chemical  mechanism  of  the  instincts  described:  sex  libido, 
passion  and  jealousy  in  relation  to  the  ovaries  and  testes,  fear 
and  anger  in  relation  to  the  adrenals,  sympathy  and  curiosity  in 
relation  to  the  pituitaries,  suggests  that  a  similar  explanation 
will  hold  for  the  dynamics  of  the  other  instincts.  In  the  closest 
relation  to  the  thyroid  appear  the  instincts  first  isolated,  so  to 
speak,  by  McDougall  as  the  instincts  of  self-display  and  self- 
effacement,  accompanied  by  emotions  of  pride  and  shame  respec- 
tively. In  certain  states  of  excessive  thyroid  activity  there  is  an 
extra  stimulation  of  the  instinctive  display  of  the  person  which 
may  go  on  to  boasting,  mania  and  exhibitionism.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  states  of  thyroid  insufficiency,  depression  is  produced, 
which  may  go  on  to  melancholia,  a  desire  to  be  alone,  to  hide, 
to  sit  apart  and  even  a  tendency  to  accuse  the  self  of  various 
uncommitted  crimes  and  sins.  In  the  form  of  cyclic  insanity 
known  as  the  manic-depressive  psychosis,  mania  alternates  with 
depression,  as  if  the  personality  were  dominated  wholly  in  turn 
by  one  or  the  other  of  these  two  instincts  of  the  ego.  There  is 
a  good  deal  of  evidence  that  behind  them  is  a  corresponding 
fluctuation  in  the  amount  the  thyroid  secretes  into  the  blood. 
Among  the  thyroid-centered  attitudes  toward  the  self  gyrate 
more  than  in  any  other  type.  Egomania  and  megalomania  occur 
most  often  in  thyroid  unstable  individuals. 


180     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

Energy  and  Sensitivity 

In  his  classic  Inquiries  into  Human  Faculty,  Francis  Galton 
laid  down  some  fundamental  considerations  concerning  energy 
and  sensitivity  as  mental  traits.  Energy  he  defined  as  the 
capacity  for  labor,  and  declared  it  to  be  the  measure  of  the  full- 
ness of  life  or  vitality.  Statistical  study  by  him  of  men  of  genius 
and  their  ancestors  showed  them  to  be  endowed  with  a  large 
amount  of  energy.  It  has  been  said  to  be  the  absolute  prerequi- 
site of  genius.  Now  if  there  is  a  single  fact  that  has  been  well 
established  by  investigations  of  the  internal  secretions,  it  is 
that  the  energy  quantum  of  an  individual  is  a  function  of  and 
determined  by  his  thyroid.  The  more  thyroid  he  has,  the  more 
energetic  will  he  be — the  less  thyroid  the  less  energetic,  and  the 
lazier.  The  thyroid-centered  individual,  of  the  excess  thyroid 
type,  actually  burns  up  more  food  and  produces  more  heat  than 
the  ordinary  organism.    He  burns  himself  up  faster  in  general. 

When  the  thyroid  sends  more  secretion  into  the  blood,  more 
thyroxin,  it  accelerates  all  the  functions  and  activities  of  the 
organs.  Tea  and  coffee  produce  loquacity  because  they  stimu- 
late the  thyroid.  People  with  thyroid  dominant  constitutions 
talk  fluently,  rapidly,  and  continuously.  Their  energy  makes 
them  doers,  actors  rather  than  spectators.  They  get  up  early  in 
the  morning,  are  on  the  go  all  day  without  surcease  or  fatigue, 
go  to  bed  late,  and  often  suffer  from  insomnia. 

Thyroid  deficients,  however,  are  definitely  the  opposite.  They 
are  quite  conscious  of  the  limited  reserve  of  energy  at  their  com- 
mand. Also  that  they  need  plenty  of  refreshing  sleep.  Early  to 
bed  and  late  to  rise  remains  the  leading  maxim  of  health  for 
them.  In  addition  they  find  it  necessary  to  sleep  during  the 
day.  Forty  winks  or  more  in  the  afternoon  makes  a  good  deal  of 
difference  to  them.  Taciturn,  inarticulate,  lazy,  slow,  tired,  are 
the  adjectives  applied  to  them  by  their  friends  as  well  as  by  their 
enemies.  All  because  of  an  insufficient  or  inefficient  supply  of 
the  thyroid's  iodine  to  their  cells.  The  mobility  of  energy  in  an 
organism  is  a  measure  of  the  amount  of  active  iodine  in  it.  The 
physiologic  synonyms  for  "energetic  and  lazy"  are  "well- 
iodinized"  and  "poorly  iodinized." 

Sensitivity,  the  ability  to  discriminate  between  grades  of  sen- 
sation or  acuteness  of  perception  is  another  thyroid  quality. 
Just  as  the  thyroid  plus  is  more  energetic,  so  is  he  more  sensitive. 
He  feels  things  more,  he  feels  pain  more  readily,  because  he 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  INFLUENCE  THE  MIND     181 

arrives  more  quickly  at  the  stage  when  the  stimulus  damages  his 
nerve  apparatus.  The  electric  conductivity  of  his  skin  is  greater, 
sometimes  a  hundred  times  greater,  than  the  average.  Conversely 
the  thyroid  deficient  type  has  a  low  discriminative  faculty.  Gal- 
ton  has  recorded  that  idiots  hardly  distinguish  between  heat  and 
cold  and  that  their  sense  of  pain  is  so  obtuse  that  some  of  the 
more  idiotic  seem  hardly  to  know  what  it  is.  Cretins  may  moan 
but  never  shed  tears. 

Energy  and  sensitivity  in  an  individual  should  direct  attention 
to  the  thyroid  element  predominating  in  his  composition.  Lack 
of  energy  and  insensitivity  to  the  degree  of  thyroid  insufficiency 
in  their  make-up. 

Memory,  Judgment,  and  Poise 

In  between  sensitivity  and  energy,  the  sensation  and  the  reac- 
tion, comes  a  passage  of  the  stimulus  through  the  gauntlet  of 
the  stored  past  experience  of  the  individual  known  as  memory. 
Many  hypotheses  have  been  advanced  by  philosophers,  psy- 
chologists and  physiologists  to  explain  the  phenomenona  of 
memory.  To  conceive  of  memory  materially  at  all  one  must 
admit  some  sort  of  memory  trace  as  the  basis  for  the  persistence 
of  memory.  This  memory  deposit  facilitates  the  occurrence  of 
the  chemical  reaction  constituting  the  memory  along  the  same 
path  the  next  time.  Forgetting  then  consists  in  a  disappearance 
of  these  memory  traces  or  deposits.  Forgetting  is  greatest  in 
the  first  hour  after  remembering,  more  than  half  of  the  memory 
trace  being  lost  in  that  time.  Comparison  of  the  curve  of  for- 
getting, and  the  curve  of  diffusion  of  a  colloid  like  gelatine  from 
its  solution,  into  a  surrounding  medium,  shows  them  to  be  ex- 
ceedingly similar.  Forgetting  may  be  explained  by  some  such 
loss  of  the  memory  trace  or  deposit  into  the  blood  continually 
flowing  by  it. 

The  internal  secretions  influence  the  amount  and  duration  of 
the  memory  deposits.  The  thyroid  appears  to  be  essential  to  the 
laying  down  of  the  memory  trace.  Cretins  have  poor  memories 
on  the  retention  side  and  so  cannot  learn.  The  memory  of 
thyroid  insufficients  is  wretched.  In  the  extreme  grades,  the 
memory  for  recent  occurrences  becomes  completely  lost.  Iodine 
and  thyroid  increase  the  electric  conductivity  of  the  brain,  so 
that  the  memory  trace  must  be  deposited  more  easily  in  those 
who  have  an  excess  of  thyroid.  Removal  of  the  thyroid  pro- 
duces a  degeneration  of  nerve  cells  and  their  processes,   and 


182     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

associative  memory  becomes  difficult  or  impossible  because  con- 
duction from  cell  to  cell  is  interfered  with.  If  sufficient  thyroid 
is  fed  in  excess,  brain  conduction  may  be  so  facilitated  that 
epilepsy  may  result  upon  slight  irritation. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  pituitary  seems  to  be  related  to  preser- 
vation of  the  memory  deposit.  In  conditions  of  disease  of  the 
pituitary,  loss  of  memory  for  past  experiences  is  more  marked. 
As  regards  recent  experiences,  they  are  better  held,  although  in 
a  sort  of  subconscious  manner,  recoverable  when  the  condition 
improves  or  is  cured.  But  the  greatest  difference  between  the 
thyroid  and  pituitary  effects  upon  memory  exists  as  regards 
material:  the  thyroid  memory  applies  particularly  to  perception 
and  percepts,  the  pituitary  to  conception  (reading,  studying, 
thinking)  and  concepts. 

Judgment  is  another  mental  process  that  often  intervenes  be- 
tween sensation  and  the  energy-reaction.  It  involves  memory 
and  association  of  experiences.  Behind  it  is  an  attitude  as  much 
as  there  is  in  an  emotion  or  the  arousing  of  an  instinct.  Beliefs 
and  reasonings  are  complex  judgments.  They  form  the  units  of 
the  intellectual  process. 

There  is  an  element  of  speed  in  judgment  on  reasoning  as  in 
perception  and  memory.  And  as  in  the  latter,  the  thyroid  deter- 
mines the  velocity.  Quick  thinking,  as  we  call  it,  means  good 
thyroid  action,  and  slow  thinking  deficient  thyroid  action.  The 
other  element  in  judgment,  accuracy,  is  influenced  by  the  ante- 
pituitary.  During  adolescence  there  is  physical  growth  which 
consumes  most  of  the  secretion  of  the  ante-pituitary.  After 
adolescence,  after  the  early  twenties,  when  physical  growth  has 
ceased,  the  ante-pituitary  secretion  sensitizes  the  cells  of  the 
brain  to  mental  growth.  The  reaction  potential  of  the  ante- 
pituitary,  that  is  its  inherent,  latent  ability  to  supply  a  maxi- 
mum of  its  endocrine  for  the  nerve  cells  of  the  frontal  lobes,  is 
the  best-known  chemical  determinant  of  intellectual  genius.  It 
makes  for  the  greatest  co-ordination  of  experience,  knowledge, 
information,  tastes  and  problems  into  one  harmonious  whole. 
And  curiously,  not  only  does  it  cause  a  fusion  of  intellectual 
material:  it  creates  a  desire  for  and  a  love  of  such  material. 

We  should  expect  to  find  extraordinarily  well-developed  ante- 
pituitary  action  among  eminent  philosophers  and  men  of  science, 
and  we  do.  Adequate  action  of  it  is  present  throughout  the  range 
of  normals  who  evidence  sufficiently  ripened  judgment  as  they 
progress  through  life.    The  ability  to  profit  by  experience,  and 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  INFLUENCE  THE  MIND     183 

to  make  more  and  more  accurate  judgments  as  one  grows  older 
implies  at  least  a  maximum  efficiency  of  it.  This  maturation  is 
not  at  all  universal.  Even  after  middle  age,  after  forty  and  fifty 
years  of  reasoning,  some  individuals  retain  the  juvenile  mind  of 
their  youth.  Like  the  Bourbons,  they  have  learned  nothing  and 
forgotten  nothing.  Their  ante-pituitary  insufficiency  often 
coupled  with  a  post-pituitary  excess,  and  other  instabilities  and 
disequilibriums  in  the  endocrine  system,  render  them  immature 
morons,  compared  with  what  might  be  expected  of  them  for  their 
years.  They  are  the  people  who  are  old  enough  to  know  better. 
For  the  same  reasons,  inhibition  and  emotional  control  are  poor 
in  them. 

Besides  the  ante-pituitary,  in  the  evolution  of  judgment,  and 
the  judgment  faculty,  due  stress  must  be  laid  upon  the  influence 
of  the  internal  secretion  of  the  testes  or  ovaries,  the  product  of 
the  interstitial  cells.  Although  the  probability  is  that  the  effects 
are  indirect,  through  a  stimulation  of  the  ante-pituitary,  the  fact 
remains  that,  in  a  child,  memory  may  be  marvelous  and  judgment 
poor  (such  memory  is  possibly  purely  thyroid  in  its  determina- 
tion). With  the  advent  of  the  gonads  upon  the  scene,  judgments 
become  the  centre  of  the  play's  plot  undoubtedly.  The  intelli- 
gence of  eunuchs  and  eunuchoids  is  in  general  low.  The  skull 
and  brain  of  castrates,  animal  and  human,  is  smaller  than  the 
average.  Gall,  the  physiologist  who  popularized  ideas  concern- 
ing the  meaning  of  the  protuberances  and  depressions  of  the 
head  in  relation  to  faculty  and  character,  early  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  was  the  first  to  prove  this.  Among  historic  castrates, 
eunuchs,  not  a  single  example  of  great  intellect,  of  the  creative 
type,  is  known.  On  the  contrary,  the  native  gifts  of  the  mind 
were  destroyed.  Thus  Abelard,  who  was  punished  with  castra- 
tion by  his  uncle  for  his  love  affair  with  Heloise,  never  composed 
a  verse  of  poetry  thereafter. 

Imagination  as  an  Endocrine  Gift 

That  brings  us  to  the  consideration  of  imagination  as  influenced 
by  the  endocrines.  The  physical  conditions  of  exercise  of  the 
imaginative  faculty  have  not  been  sufficiently  investigated. 
Alcohol  has  long  been  known  to  act  as  an  evocant  of  strange 
images.  The  hallucinations  of  delirium  tremens  are  the  results 
obtained  in  extreme  intoxication.  A  strangely  imaged  flow  of 
consciousness,  the  imaginative  state,  may  also  be  evoked  by 


184     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

morphine  and  cannabis  indica.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  brain 
cells  may  be  made  to  combine  in  the  fresh,  novel,  and  unfamiliar 
associations  that  are  recognized  as  unreal. 

Francis  Galton,  pioneer  student  of  the  conditionings  of  human 
faculty,  left  an  interesting  study  of  the  visualising  capacity,  so 
far  as  it  could  be  attacked  by  the  statistical  method.  Two  of  his 
conclusions  are  worth  repeating  for  our  purposes.  One  is  that 
the  power  to  imagine  is  poor  in  philosophers  and  men  of  science. 
The  other  that  it  is  higher  in  the  female  sex  than  in  the  male. 
We  have  seen  that  the  philosophic,  scientific,  intellectual  mind, 
the  capacity  to  abstract,  and  think  in  terms  of  abstractions,  is 
definitely  dependent  upon  proper  secretion  by  the  ante-pituitary. 
In  woman,  the  post-pituitary  is  generally  predominant  over  the 
ante-pituitary.  Though  we  are  in  need  of  a  series  of  studies  of 
the  endocrine  traits  and  composition  of  men  endowed  with  high 
imaginative  qualities,  and  so  are  at  a  loss,  we  have  indications 
of  an  endocrine  control  of  the  state  of  consciousness  we  speak  of 
as  the  imaginative. 

Most  of  the  evidence  accumulated  in  the  examination  and 
treatment  of  morbid  conditions  characterized  by  a  restless,  inco- 
ordinate activity  of  the  brain  cells  points  to  excess  of  the  post- 
pituitary  secretion  as  the  cause,  or  as  one  of  the  most  important 
causes.  The  thyroid  and  the  adrenal  medulla  also  exert  their 
influence.  But  the  strongest  appears  to  be  the  post-pituitary. 
Phobias,  fears  which  obsess  the  mind,  anxiety  neuroses,  sus- 
picions, hallucinations,  delusions,  nervousness,  all  expressions  of 
what  we  may  sum  up  technically  as  the  imaginative  state  of 
mind,  occur  and  occur  frequently,  associated  with  other  symp- 
toms of  posterior  pituitary  overactivity.  Persons  in  whose 
make-up  it  rules  are  more  liable  to  imagine  disturbances  of  their 
mentality,  or  exhibit  a  well-developed  imaginative  streak. 
Normal  states  of  overactivity  of  the  post-pituitary  such  as  occur 
in  some  women  during  the  menstrual  period  and  pregnancy,  and 
in  some  men  as  part  of  the  endocrine  cycle  of  their  everyday 
lives,  are  accompanied  by  increase  in  the  susceptibility  and  vigor 
of  the  imagination.  Whether  the  feeding  of  excess  post-pituitary 
would  lead  to  a  stimulation  of  the  tendency  or  ability  to  imagine 
is  still  to  be  decided.  But  it  is  known  that  quieting  the  post- 
pituitary  by  various  means  will  cause  a  depression  of  the  faculty, 
and  eliminate  its  pathologic  manifestations. 

Psychologists  distinguish  between  the  constructive  imagination 
that  expresses  itself  in  an  ordered  activity  and  the  unbalanced 


HOW  THE  GLANDS  INFLUENCE  THE  MIND     185 

fancies  of  the  fearful  neurotic  for  example.  The  post-pituitary 
confers  the  lability  of  the  underlying  state  of  brain  in  all  of  these 
imaginative  tincturings  of  consciousness.  The  constructive 
imagination,  one  of  the  few  truly  precious  gifts  of  a  personality, 
is  probably  the  expression  of  a  certain  balanced  activity  of  the 
ante-pituitary  and  the  post-pituitary. 

Moods  and  the  Organic  Outlook 

The  lability  the  post-pituitary  confers  upon  the  combinations 
of  perceptions  and  conceptions,  grouped  as  the  imagined,  extends 
to  the  ruling  mood  that  may  be  spoken  of  as  the  organic  outlook. 
Post-pituitary  in  excess,  without  compensation  or  balancing  by 
one  or  some  of  the  other  endocrines,  is  associated  with  an  insta- 
bility of  mood  and  the  organic  outlook.  Concomitant  is  a 
defective  self-control.  Typically,  one  sees  the  effects  in  the 
mental  abnormalities  of  women  during  the  premenstrual  period. 
A  number  of  them  have  their  pituitary  balance  upset  then,  with 
an  overtopping  of  the  ante-pituitary  by  the  post-pituitary. 
Irritability,  a  sub-hysteria,  or  an  actual  hysteria  may  emerge  in 
the  usually  most  placid  characters.  A  quiet  wife  and  mother 
may  go  for  her  husband,  curse  and  mortify  him,  even  strike  and 
beat  him.  She  may  slap  her  children  at  that  time  and  no  other. 
It  is  well  known  that  most  of  their  crimes  are  committed  by 
women  during  the  menstrual  period.  So  are  the  suicides.  De- 
terioration of  mentality  and  character  so  often  observed  during 
the  menopause,  with  its  apathies  or  excitements,  melancholia  or 
mania,  the  fits  of  weeping  or  gaiety,  the  loss  of  grip  upon  reality, 
the  complete  change  in  mood  and  temperament  that  reflect  the 
transformation  of  the  organic  outlook,  demonstrate  clearly  the 
overwhelming  influence  of  the  endocrines  upon  the  attitudes  of 
the  self  toward  the  self. 

It  is  possible  to  speak  of  thyroid  moods,  adrenal  moods,  ante- 
pituitary  or  post-pituitary  moods,  gonadal  moods.  Each  of  these 
is  the  echo  in  the  mind  of  cells  stimulated  or  depressed,  by  con- 
centration or  dilution  in  the  blood  of  particular  internal  secre- 
tions. Restlessness  and  excitement  can  be  produced  experi- 
mentally by  feeding  thyroid.  Vague  anxiety,  depressive  fancies 
and  fears,  imaginative  overactivity  can  be  removed  by  inhibiting 
the  post-pituitary.  Hypersecretion  of  the  ovary  will  cause  a 
sexual  susceptibility  and  a  mood  of  genital  obsession,  capable 
of  the  most  remarkable  sublimations  and  perversions. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  BACKGROUNDS  OF  PERSONALITY 

The  question  of  moods  and  sublimations  once  raised  introduces 
the  problem  of  the  relation  of  neuroses,  nervous  disorders  with- 
out an  organic  disease  basis,  and  mental  abnormalities,  to  the 
endocrine  system.  Obviously,  in  view  of  all  the  influences  exerted 
by  the  ductless  glands  upon  every  organ  and  function  of  the 
body  and  mind,  and  their  intermediary,  the  vegetative  nervous 
system,  a  relation  must  exist.  Observations  accumulated,  some 
of  which  have  been  referred  to  in  the  preceding  chapters,  prove 
the  complete,  though  complex,  reality  of  such  a  deduction. 

The  history  of  attitudes  toward  nerve  and  mental  disorders  is 
a  remarkable  illustration  of  the  vicissitudes  of  ignorance  playing 
with  words.  The  Greeks,  swayed  and  dazzled  as  they  were  by 
the  magic  of  words  which  they  discovered,  yet  never  permitted 
themselves  to  be  fooled  by  them.  As  an  explanation  for  the 
phenomena  of  hysteria  in  women,  that  benign  mental  disorder 
par  excellence,  they  had  the  theory  of  a  wandering  about  of 
the  womb  in  the  organism  as  a  cause.  That  provided  an  image 
of  something  material  happening  as  an  explanation.  With  the 
triumphs  of  anatomy  after  the  Renaissance,  that  naive  view  had 
to  be  discarded.  In  its  place  the  humoral  theory  held  sway,  with 
its  good  humors  and  its  bad  humors,  and  their  bilious,  lymphatic, 
nervous  and  sanguine  admixtures.  But  that,  too,  went  the  way 
of  all  flesh.  During  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  a 
popular  phrase,  "nerves,"  paraphrased  by  practitioners  of  medi- 
cine as  neuroses,  then  came  into  vogue  as  the  efficient  cause  of 
these  troubles.  "Nerves"  indeed  today  have  filtered  everywhere 
into  the  common  consciousness. 

Because  of  the  irritant  effects  of  light,  food  and  social 
conditions,  America  has  come  to  swarm  with  neurotics  of  every 
type,  especially  the  sexual.  A  rich  field  was  created  for 
cults  of  treatment,  which  spring  up  like  weeds  periodically  all 
over  the  country.  We  have  seen  how  the  American,  Beard,  was 
inspired  by  the  idea  that  "nerves"  represented  a  loss  of  tone,  a 

186 


THE  BACKGROUNDS  OF  PERSONALITY  187 

flabbiness,  weakness  and  softness  of  the  nerves,  to  coin  the  word 
neurasthenia.  Nerve  exhaustion  he  believed  was  the  cause  of 
the  nerve  weakness.  Weir  Mitchell,  another  American,  intro- 
duced the  rest  cure  combined  with  overfeeding  as  a  treatment 
for  it. 

An  analytical  French  neurologist,  Charcot,  was  not  to  be  satis- 
fied by  words  of  Latin-Greek  derivation.  Insisting  upon  the 
significance  of  the  individual  mental  workings  of  each  case,  he 
and  his  pupil  Janet  began  to  unravel  a  tangle  which  has  led  to 
the  present  revolution  in  psychology.  For  Freud,  Jung  and 
Adler  took  up  the  story  where  Janet  left  off. 

Janet  elaborated  the  ideas  of  a  subconscious  and  an  uncon- 
scious, a  dissociation  of  the  components  of  the  mind,  and  a  split- 
ting of  the  personality.  Lumping  the  phenomena  of  amnesia, 
somnambulism,  hypnotism,  anesthesia,  obsession  and  hysteria 
into  the  grand  group  of  mental  dissociations  and  disintegrations, 
he  achieved  .a  unification  never  considered  possible  before  him. 
Suggestion  as  a  mode  of  cure  was  also  emphasized  and  elaborated 
by  him  to  an  undreamed-of  degree. 

Freud,  in  1895,  studying  a  case  of  hysteria  with  Breuer,  had 
attempted  cure  by  the  method  of  free  association,  attempting  to 
get  the  hysteric  to  pour  out  her  mental  life.  Not  succeeding,  and 
his  interest  aroused  by  her  continual  references  to  her  dreams, 
he  discovered  that  by  means  of  those  dreams  he  could  tap  the 
subconscious  and  unconscious  in  regions  hitherto  inaccessible. 
For  in  the  dreams,  ideas,  persons,  and  experiences  appeared  that 
never  came  upon  the  stage  of  the  conscious.  From  that  finding 
he  developed  the  concept  of  repression,  i.  e.,  the  relegation  of  a 
painful  experience  into  the  unconscious,  and  kept  imprisoned 
there  by  the  censor.  Also  how  there  it  became  the  complex, 
which,  like  a  stage  manager,  never  appeared  before  the  footlights 
of  the  conscious,  but  determined  its  content  just  the  same  by 
inhibition  or  stimulation  of  any  character  or  scene  to  be  enacted 
upon  it. 

A  complete  critique  of  Freudianism  cannot  be  attempted  here. 
But  in  relation  to  the  endocrine  system  as  controllers  of  nerve 
function  in  health  and  disease,  a  valid  criticism  can  be  made. 
Firstly,  the  Freudian  jargon,  its  technicalities  and  explanations, 
are  metaphors.  Some  may  regard  them  as  justifiable  descriptions 
of  mental  processes.  But  it  certainly  can  be  urged  against  them 
that  they  provide  us  with  no  idea  concerning  what  is  happening 
in  the  cells  of  the  body  and  brain  as  explanation  for  the  event, 


188      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

normal  or  abnormal,  supposedly  explained.  Words  like  sublima- 
tion or  transference  are  figures  of  speech  and  nothing  else. 
Secondly,  they  ignore  totally  the  powers  of  the  vegetative  appa- 
ratus, the  viscera,  muscles  and  secreting  glands  together,  as 
originators  and  determiners  of  the  wish  and  its  adventures. 

How  utterly  different,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  physi- 
ologist, the  two  explanations  are  as  pictures,  can  be  seen  from  a 
single  example.  The  idea  of  repression,  to  the  Freudian,  means 
the  pushing  down  into  the  subconscious  of  some  experience. 
Pushing  down  is  a  process  controlled  by  the  laws  of  physics:  it 
involves  the  concepts  of  matter  and  force.  Hence,  the  expression, 
as  a  description  of  a  psychic  episode,  is  a  metaphor  pure  and 
simple.  From  the  standpoint  of  the  process  of  repression  as  pic- 
tured by  the  student  of  the  vegetative  apparatus,  the  term 
signifies  a  real  bottling  up  of  energy.  For  the  repression  means 
actual  compression  of  muscle,  the  muscle  contained  in  the  viscera. 
And  the  repression  means  a  real  interference  with  the  release  of 
energy,  which  remains  bound  up,  tugging  for  room  for  expression 
as  much  as  a  spring  tightly  coiled  in  a  box.  In  the  production 
of  that  tension  an  endocrine  has  often  been  decisive.  The  en- 
docrine nature  of  the  individual  may  decide  whether  a  subcon- 
scious, i.  e.,  visceral  or  vegetative  tension,  is  to  come  into  being, 
live  or  die,  in  the  face  of  a  given  situation.  If  thereby,  a  perma- 
nent disturbance  of  the  equilibrium  between  the  components  is 
brought  about,  a  neurosis,  expression  of  an  unsatisfied  vegetative 
tension,  follows. 

It  has  been  hailed  as  a  brand  new  discovery  by  those  follow- 
ing the  latest  in  psychology  that  the  subconscious  and  the  un- 
conscious constitute  a  more  essential  component  of  the  personality 
than  the  conscious.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  common  practice  has 
recognized  the  fact,  if  not  the  mechanism  and  its  significance,  for 
ages.  It  is  not  what  people  say  or  do — it  is  how  they  say  it: 
that  is  how  the  true  reactions  of  personality  are  recognized  in- 
stinctively even  by  animals.  Tone  and  gesture  (when  not  acted 
or  posed)  are  accepted  as  symbols  and  symptoms  of  states  of 
the  inmost  sancta  sanctorum  that  words  and  wit  never  give 
entrance  to,  nay  disguise  and  block.  Tone  and  gesture  as  revela- 
tions of  the  Inner-Me,  the  True-Me  or  Intra-Me  if  you  will,  are 
so  potent  because  they  are  direct  expressions  of  the  vegetative 
apparatus.  The  curl  of  a  lip,  the  flicker  of  an  eye-lash,  the  twitch 
of  a  shoulder  are  the  overflow  of  energy  cramped  in  the  increased 
intravisceral  pressure,  determined  by  increased  outflow  of  en- 


THE  BACKGROUNDS  OF  PERSONALITY         189 

docrine  secretion.    Wittingly  or  unwittingly  we  interpret  the  little 
signs  as  messages  from  the  deepest  self,  which  they  truly  are. 

Nervous  Breakdowns  and  Shell  Shock 

In  civil  life,  the  complex  of  symptoms  Beard  jumbled  together 
as  neurasthenia,  when  associated  with  a  loss  of  self-control,  so 
that  the  sufferer  is  incapacitated  for  the  duties  of  everyday  life, 
has  become  the  popular  "nervous  breakdown.'  A  sanitarium  ap- 
pears to  be  one  of  the  necessary  components  of  the  condition. 
It  is  the  last  act,  the  climax  of  "nerves." 

During  the  War  of  1914-1918,  thousands  of  cases  of  functional 
disorders  of  the  nervous  came  to  be  grouped  under  "Shell  Shock." 
The  psychic  phenomena  in  the  wake  of  concussion  of  the  brain 
due  to  explosives  suggested  the  term,  and  its  application  to 
affections  of  self-control,  or  dissociations  of  the  personality,  with 
paralysis,  blindness,  speechlessness,  loss  of  hearing  and  so  on. 
The  War  neurosis  (including  those  arising  in  home  service)  is 
still  a  topical  subject  because  thousands  of  mentally  disabled 
soldiers  are  alive. 

In  view  of  what  has  been  said  concerning  the  endocrine 
mechanism  of  the  instincts  and  the  vegetative  apparatus,  it  could 
be  predicted  that  a  number  of  these  nerve  casualties  of  peace 
and  war  would  be  caused  by  an  upset  of  the  equilibrium  between 
the  glands  of  internal  secretion.  A  study  of  war  neuroses  by  the 
great  Italian  student  of  the  endocrines,  Pende,  confirms  this 
assumption.  As  emphasized,  the  internal  secretions  are  like  tun- 
ing keys,  and  tighten  or  loosen  the  strings  of  the  organism- 
instrument,  the  nerves.  War  for  the  soldier,  or  the  civilian  com- 
batant as  well,  sets  the  strings  vibrating,  and  with  them  the  glands 
controlled  by  them.  Excessive  stimulation  or  depression  of  an 
endocrine  will  disturb  the  whole  chain  of  hormones,  and  the  vege- 
tative system,  and  their  echoes  in  the  psyche.  The  nervous 
disorders  of  war  that  have  been  lumped  as  shell  shock  or  war 
shock  may  be  looked  upon  as  uncompensated  jarrings  of  the 
endocrine  vegetative  mechanism,  as  dislocations  of  parts  and 
processes  that  are  reflected  outwardly  as  ailment  or  disease. 

An  Endocrine  Neurosis 

An  exquisite  example  of  an  endocrine  neurosis,  that  is  a  dis- 
order of  nerves   and   brain  dependent  upon   an  upset  of  the 


190      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

equilibrium  between  the  internal  secretions  due  to  a  trying  ex- 
perience, was  furnished  recently  by  the  reactions  of  three  naval 
officers  lost  in  the  snow  wilds  of  Canada  through  a  balloon  adven- 
ture. The  cases  aroused  a  good  deal  of  interest  at  the  time,  and 
the  details  were  reported  by  the  newspapers  as  if  they  were  the 
episodes  of  a  serial  mystery  story. 

The  three  officers  started  out  late  one  fine  evening  from  Rock- 
away  Air  Station  in  a  balloon  for  a  practice  trip.  Atmospheric 
conditions  suddenly  changed,  they  became  lost  in  the  clouds,  and 
finally  landed  somewhere  in  the  Canadian  wilderness.  The  com- 
mander of  the  balloon  crew,  Lieut.  A.,  23  years  old,  was  the 
youngest  of  the  three;  the  oldest,  Lieut.  B.,  being  45,  and  the 
third  man  in  the  thirties,  Lieut.  C. 

According  to  the  testimony  given  at  the  Court  of  Inquiry  held 
afterwards,  two  hours  after  they  abandoned  the  balloon  and 
started  struggling  through  the  snow,  B.  became  tired  and  com- 
plained of  his  fatigue.  B.'s  fatigue  increased,  and  two  days  later 
became  so  great  that  the  party  had  to  stop  for  an  hour  and  build 
a  fire  in  order  to  permit  him  to  rest.  However,  an  hour  proved 
too  little:  and  in  another  half  hour  he  was  falling  and  fainting. 

Letters  written  by  C.  to  his  wife  and  gotten  hold  of  by  re- 
porters declared  that  B.  at  this  juncture  passed  into  a  semi-sane 
state,  in  which  he  accused  himself  of  a  number  of  sins,  and  volun- 
teered to  commit  suicide,  so  that  the  others  would  not  be 
burdened  by  his  weakness.  Also,  that  they  might  use  his  body 
to  fortify  themselves.  A.  discussed  with  C.  the  advisability  of 
taking  B.'s  knife  away  from  him.  Living  on  their  carrier  pigeons, 
they  continued  on,  moved  by  a  desperate  hope  of  fiucjing  some- 
one. B.  had  several  fainting  spells  after  drinking  water  traced 
by  moose  tracks. 

Luck  favored  them,  and  they  encountered  an  Indian  who 
guided  them  to  a  place  called  Moose  Factory.  Here  they  wrote 
the  letters  home  which  reached  their  wives  and  the  daily  press 
before  they  themselves  returned  to  civilization.  A  great  hue  and 
cry  was  raised  by  the  newspapers  about  their  plight.  Newspaper 
correspondents  vied  with  each  other  for  the  honor  of  being  the 
first  to  meet  them  and  get  their  story. 

They  arrived  at  a  collection  of  houses  named  Mattice.  A.  and 
C.  proceeded  ahead  and  found  instructions  for  them  not  to  talk. 
C.  went  back  to  B.,  who  was  in  a  shack  with  the  correspondents 
full  of  the  story  of  the  letters.  B.  became  enraged  and  struck  C. 
who  retained  his  self-control. 


THE  BACKGROUNDS  OF  PERSONALITY         191 

Differences  were  patched  up,  and  the  three  returned  together 
to  New  York.  There  the  medical  examination  of  the  three  showed 
that  the  four  days  in  the  wilderness  had  left  its  deepest  effects 
upon  the  physique  and  mind  of  B.  In  a  few  days  he  developed 
an  attack  of  tonsillitis,  with  fever,  and  a  mental  disturbance  de- 
scribed by  the  medical  officer  as  exhaustion  psychosis.  He 
believed  this  condition  to  be  the  result  of  severe  exhaustion,  pro- 
longed anxiety,  worry,  and  extreme  exposure.  Extreme  restless- 
ness and  irritability,  confusion  of  thought  and  an  undefined  per- 
plexity, all  the  prominent  symptoms  of  exhaustion  psychosis, 
making  him  hyperactive  and  inclined  to  acts  of  violence,  were 
in  evidence. 

The  physique,  character  and  reactions  of  Lieut.  B.  are  what 
interest  us  in  the  case.  The  pictures  of  him  published,  and  the 
structure  of  his  skull,  face  and  teeth,  his  hair  and  other  physical 
traits  point  to  his  being  an  adrenal-centered  type,  of  the  unstable 
variety,  so  far  as  his  internal  secretion  make-up  is  concerned.  As 
we  shall  see  in  the  next  chapter  on  the  different  kinds  of  en- 
docrine personalities,  the  unstable  adrenocentric  (convenient 
name  for  the  class)  is  characterized  by  rapid  exhaustibility  be- 
cause under  conditions  of  stress  and  stress,  the  reserve  of  the 
gland  is  consumed.  The  adrenal  glands,  we  noted  in  a  preceding 
chapter,  are  concerned  with  the  maintenance  of  muscle  and  nerve 
tone  in  emergencies.  They  are  the  glands  which,  during  crises 
especially,  control  the  production  and  supply  of  energy  to  the 
various  organs  and  tissues  called  upon  to  function  to  the  utmost 
in  emergencies.  When  the  adrenals  fail,  as  they  do  readily  in 
these  labile  adrenocentrics,  it  is  as  if  the  adrenals  were  cut  out 
of  the  body.  And  it  has  been  repeatedly  shown  that  extirpation 
of  the  adrenals  is  immediately  followed  by  degeneration  and 
breakdown  of  the  brain  cells. 

These  facts  explain  the  reactions  of  Lieut.  B.  The  acute  call 
upon  his  adrenals  made  by  his  dangerous  situation  probably  soon 
exhausted  them  of  their  content  of  reserve  secretions.  Over- 
whelming fatigue  with  loss  of  muscle  tone  followed.  The  changes 
in  the  brain  caused  him  to  talk  as  he  did  in  the  wilderness. 
Returned  to  safety,  the  news  that  his  reputation  was  under  fire 
because  of  C.'s  letter  brought  out  another  adrenal  characteristic: 
the  excessive  instinct  of  pugnacity,  easily  stimulated,  with  its 
emotion  of  anger  and  the  tendency  to  violence.  What  is  spoken 
of  as  a  quick  temper  is  an  adrenocentric  trait.  Returned  to  New 
York,    an    infection,    tonsillitis,    attacked    him.     Infections    in 


192      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

adrenocentrics  use  up  the  content  of  the  adrenals  as  rapidly  as 
physical  exhaustion  or  emotion.  So  the  tonsillitis,  which  in  an- 
other type  of  individual  would  have  been  combatted  continuously 
by  the  adrenals  and  so  passed  by  as  a  mere  sore  throat,  pre- 
sented him  with  a  high  temperature,  and  the  brain  disturbance 
described  by  the  medical  officer  as  exhaustion-psychosis,  with 
again  a  tendency  to  violence.  In  short,  the  history  of  his  ad- 
venture is  the  history  of  his  adrenals  under  stress  and  strain.  It 
illustrates  the  mechanism  of  a  typical  endocrine  neurosis. 

The  Unconscious  and  the  Viscera 

In  the  chapter  on  the  glands  of  internal  secretion  as  an  inter- 
locking directorate,  certain  generalities  were  stated  as  the  laws 
of  the  government  of  the  organism's  life  by  them  in  association 
with  the  vegetative  apparatus.  It  was  put  forward  as  a  funda- 
mental revision  of  the  theory,  hitherto  accepted,  of  the  limita- 
tion of  mind  to  the  brain  cells.  We  think  and  feel  not  alone  with 
the  brain,  but  with  our  muscles,  our  viscera,  our  vegetative  nerves, 
and  last  but  not  least  our  endocrine  organs.  In  short,  we  think 
and  feel  with  each  and  every  part  of  ourselves. 

Among  these  pristine  factors  determining  the  content  of  con- 
sciousness, the  endocrines  are  most  important,  because  they  alone 
to  start  with,  of  all  the  other  factors,  are  different  in  each  and 
every  individual.  They  are  what  render  him  unique  at  birth, 
even  though  he  looks  the  counterpart  of  millions  of  other  babies 
born  at  the  same  time.  They  constitute  his  inner  destiny.  As 
he  grows,  the  external  factors,  social  experiences,  climate,  acci- 
dents, and  disease  modify  and  condition  the  reactions  and  com- 
plexity of  the  endocrine  system.  As  these  modifications  and 
associations  are  of  the  greatest  import  for  the  final  elaboration 
of  the  personality,  composing  as  they  do  the  elements  of  the 
unconscious  which  confers  the  unique  stamp  of  normal,  abnormal, 
supernormal,  or  subnormal,  it  is  worth  while  now  to  review  the 
most  general  of  the  determining  laws.  Man  is  an  energy  phe- 
nomenon, both  conscious  and  unconscious,  with  the  energy 
emanating  from  the  endocrine-vegetative  mechanisms.  So  it  be- 
comes possible  for  us,  by  their  aid,  to  analyze  the  conscious, 
the  subconscious  and  the  unconscious  with  the  terms  long  current 
in  the  analyses  of  physics. 

1.  Man  is  an  energy  machine  which,  though  it  is  constantly 
losing  energy  as  a  whole,  consists  of  parts  constantly  accumulat- 


THE  BACKGROUNDS  OF  PERSONALITY  193 

ing  energy  (as  a  result  of  inherent  chemical  reactions  accelerated 
by  the  absorption  of  food).  This  process  of  local  accumulation 
of  energy  associated  with  general  loss  of  energy  may  be  observed 
even  in  the  ameba,  in  the  form  of  stored  reserve  food  material. 
Evolution  created  a  system  of  organs,  the.  viscera,  as  specialists 
in  energy  conservation,  utilization  or  transformation. 

For  intercommunication  and  interaction  between  the  viscera 
two  systems  were  elaborated:  a  younger  system  of  direct  con- 
tacts, the  nerves,  and  nerve  cells,  through  which  influences  could 
be  conducted  for  the  stimulation,  acceleration,  retardation  or 
inhibition  of  an  energy  process  in  them;  and  the  older,  the 
endocrine  gland  association,  for  the  production  of  chemical  sub- 
stances to  act  as  messengers  to  be  sent  from  one  viscus  to 
another,  and  also  to  the  nerves,  through  the  blood  or  lymph  which 
bathe  all  the  cells.  They  could  affect  only  one  or  certain  organs, 
because  by  selection  only  the  chosen  organ  or  organs  knew  the 
code,  as  it  were.  The  chemical  system  is  much  the  older  system, 
and  preceded  the  nerve  system  by  aeons  of  time.  The  whole 
system,  viscera,  visceral  nerves  and  the  endocrines  gradually 
united  into  a  complete  autonomous  organism  within  the  organ- 
ism, and  as  such  functions  as  the  vegetative  apparatus. 

Evolution  of  the  Endocrines 

2.  In  the  course  of  evolution,  variations  occurred  in  all  three 
components  of  the  apparatus,  the  viscera,  the  nerves,  and  the 
endocrines.  Now  variations  in  the  viscera  and  the  nerves  are 
essentially  grossly  physical  and  quantitative.  That  is,  there  may 
be  a  bigger  stomach  or  a  smaller  stomach,  larger  nerve  fibres  or 
smaller.  And  as  Life  always  has  worked  with  a  large  margin  of 
safety,  and  always  played  for  safety  first  as  regards  quantity, 
these  variations  have  not  become  of  much  significance  for  the 
history  and  destiny  of  the  animal. 

But  variations  among  the  endocrines  made  a  tremendous  differ- 
ence. To  have  very  much  thyroid  and  very  little  pituitary,  much 
adrenal  and  not  enough  parathyroid  meant  a  great  deal  to  the 
Organism  as  a  whole,  as  well  as  to  the  vegetative  apparatus.  For 
states  of  tension  and  relaxation,  activity  and  inactivity  in  the 
nerves  and  viscera  would  be  determined  by  these  variations  in 
the  ratio  between  the  variants.  The  vegetative  apparatus  in  its 
virginity,  say  in  the  new-born  infant,  may  be  said  to  have  its 
development  primarily  determined  by  the  reaction  potentials  of 


194      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

the  endocrine  part  of  it,  that  is  the  latent  power  of  each  gland 
to  secrete  at  a  minimum  or  a  maximum,  and  the  balance  between 
them. 

Education  of  the  Vegetative  System 

3.  Training  or  education  involves,  beside  other  effects,  a 
training  of  the  endocrines,  and  hence  of  the  entire  vegetative 
apparatus,  to  respond  in  a  particular  way  to  a  particular  stimu- 
lus. Experience  is  like  the  introduction  of  new  push-buttons, 
levers,  and  wheels  into  the  mechanism.  All  learning  which  calls 
out  or  arrests  the  functioning  of  an  instinct,  must,  from  what  we 
have  learned  of  the  chemical  dynamics  of  instincts  as  reactions 
between  hormones,  nerves  and  viscera,  affect  the  vegetative  sys- 
tem. When  there  is  a  conflict  between  two  or  more  instincts, 
between  pressures  of  energy  flowing  in  different  directions,  there 
may  be  compromise  and  normality,  or  a  grinding  of  the  gears  and 
abnormality. 

Where  does  the  brain  come  in,  in  all  this?  As  the  servant  of 
the  vegetative  apparatus.  To  call  it  the  master  tissue  is  mani- 
festly absurd,  when  it  can  only  be  the  diplomatic  constitutional 
monarch  of  the  system.  It  can,  in  fact,  act  only  ,as  the  great 
central  station  for  associative  memory,  as  only  one  of  the  factors 
implicated  in  education. 

The  most  powerful  educative  agents  of  the  vegetative  appa- 
ratus of  a  human  being  are  the  other  humans  around  him.  And 
they  comprise  the  most  powerful  of  the  external  effectors  of 
education,  for  better,  for  worse.  The  training  and  education  of 
the  endocrine-vegetative  system  is  the  basis  of  all  social  rules 
(Habit,  Custom,  Convention,  Law,  Conscience).  An  unresolved 
discord,  a  continued  conflict  among  the  parts  of  the  vegetative 
system,  in  spite  of  such  education,  is  the  foundation  of  the  un- 
happiness  of  the  acute  or  chronic  misfits  and  maladjusted,  the 
neurotic  and  the  psychotic. 

The  Physical  Basis  of  the  Unconscious 

4.  Another  vastly  important  law  that  governs  the  content  of 
the  conscious  and  the  unconscious,  and  resultant  behaviour  is 
the  fact  that  the  nerves  and  nerve  cells  of  the  vegetative  appa- 
ratus, the  nerves  leading  to  the  viscera  and  the  endocrine  glands, 
like  the  solar  plexus,  are  affected  by  stimuli  of  lower  value  than 


THE  BACKGROUNDS  OF  PERSONALITY  195 

those  which  arouse  the  brain  cells.  In  the  metaphorical  language 
of  the  old  psychology,  the  threshold  value,  that  is  the  strength 
or  loudness  of  stimulus  sufficient  to  make  itself  felt  or  heard,  is 
less  for  the  vegetative  apparatus  than  for  the  brain.  So  we  begin 
to  glimpse  why  an  emotion  seems  to  be  experienced  before  the 
visceral  changes  that  really  preceded  it,  but  pressed  their  way 
into  consciousness  later.  This  gives  us  a  clue  to  the  unconscious 
as  the  more  sensitive  and  deeper  part  of  the  mind. 

More  than  that,  it  supplies  us  with  a  physical  basis  for  the 
unconscious  which  will  explain  much  of  the  observed  laws  of  its 
workings.  It  provides  a  reason  for  the  apparent  swiftness,  spon- 
taneity, and  unreasonableness  of  what  is  called  intuition.  And 
it  may  show  us  a  source  for  a  good  deal  of  the  material  of  dreams 
and  dream  states. 

We  have  said  that  we  think  and  we  remember,  not  alone  with 
the  brain,  but  with  the  muscles,  the  viscera  and  the  endocrines. 
So  do  we  forget  not  alone  with  the  brain,  but  with  the  muscles, 
the  viscera,  the  endocrines  and  their  nerves.  The  utmost  impor- 
tance of  muscle  attitudes  in  remembering  has  been  established 
in  the  experimental  laboratory. 

It  is  one  of  the  great  services  Freud  rendered  to  psychology 
(and  one,  by  the  way,  largely  responsible  for  the  acceptance  of 
his  doctrines  by  the  disinterested  intelligence)  that  he  showed  that 
a  species  of  forgetting  is  nothing  casual,  but  active  and  purpose- 
ful, a  manifestation  of  the  life  of  the  unconscious.  However, 
though  his  description  of  the  process  was  correct,  he  left  it  to 
occur  in  a  vacuum.  As  a  matter  of  fact  this  forgetting  consists 
in  the  inhibition  of  associative  memory  by  a  process  in  the  vege- 
tative apparatus,  so  as  to  maintain  the  equilibrium  within  itself 
which  is  reflected  in  consciousness  as  comfort. 

The  unconscious,  in  short,  consists  of  the  buried  associations 
among  the  parts  of  the  vegetative  apparatus  and  the  brain  cells. 
We  seem  to  be  much  nearer  to  grasping  the  nature  of  the  uncon- 
scious, when  we  look  upon  it  as  a  historical  continuum,  a  com- 
pound or  emulsion  of  different  and  various  states  of  intravisoeral 
pressure  and  tone,  in  the  vegetative  apparatus,  dependent  upon 
the  balance  between  the  endocrines,  as  well  as  upon  past  experi- 
ences of  the  viscera  in  the  way  of  stimulation  or  depression.  We 
forget  that  which  is  held  down,  literally,  in  the  vegetative  appa- 
ratus. This  explanation  of  forgetting  tells,  too,  why  the  forgotten 
(stored  in  the  sub-brain,  the  endocrine-vegetative  system)  con- 
tinually projects  itself  into  and  interferes  with  the  regular  flow 


196     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

of  consciousness,  e.  g.,  in  slips  of  the  tongue,  mistakes  of  spelling, 
and  so  on:  because  the  energy  bottled  in  the  vegetative  system 
tends  to  erupt  into  the  consciousness  into  which  it  would 
ordinarily  flow. 

In  the  evolution  of  the  mind,  there  have  been  elaborated  de- 
vices to  protect  it  against  the  vegetative  apparatus.  Conscious- 
ness, or  awareness,  must  be  accepted  as  a  fundamental,  primal 
fact,  like  protoplasm.  Consciousness  and  protoplasm  may  be  the 
complementary  sides  of  the  same  coin.  Whatever  the  truth,  the 
fact  stands  out  that  the  oldest,  deepest,  most  potent  conscious- 
ness is  that  of  the  traditionally  despised  lowest  organs,  the  vege- 
tative organs,  the  heart  and  lungs,  stomach  and  intestines,  the 
kidneys  and  the  liver,  and  so  on,  their  nerves,  e.  g.,  the  solar 
plexus,  and  the  glands  of  internal  secretion.  They  invented  and 
elaborated  muscle,  bone  and  brain  to  carry  out  their  will.  Evo- 
lution has  been  in  the  direction  of  a  greater  perfection  of  the 
methods  of  carrying  out  their  will.  Their  consciousness,  working 
upon  the  growing  and  multiplying  brain  cells,  has  created  what 
we  call  self-conscious  mind. 

Mind,  reacting  upon  its  creator,  has,  in  a  sense,  come  to  domi- 
nate them,  because  it  has  become  the  meeting  ground  of  all  the 
energy-influences  seething  and  bubbling  in  the  organism,  and  so 
developed  into  the  organ  of  handling  them  as  a  whole,  their 
Integrating-Executive.  But  just  the  same  and  all  the  time,  the 
underlying  consciousness  of  the  viscera  and  their  accessories 
stand  as  the  powers  behind  the  throne,  but  as  what  we  have  now 
learned  to  speak  of,  in  relation  to  the  Mind,  as  the  Unconscious. 

Psychopathology  of  Everyday  Life 

To  sum  up  these  relations  of  the  viscera,  the  endocrines,  the 
unconscious  and  the  mind,  it  may  be  stated  as  a  far-reaching 
generality  for  the  understanding  of  human  life:  that  character 
and  conduct  are  expressions  of  the  streams  of  energy  arising  in 
the  vegetative  apparatus,  primarily  endocrine  determined  at 
birth,  and  secondarily  experience  determined  after  the  organism 
has  learned  to  react  as  a  whole,  as  consciousness.  The  result  of 
such  a  reaction  as  a  whole  tends  to  balance  the  disturbance  of 
energy,  so  as  to  maintain  or  restore  the  equilibrium,  or  sense  of 
harmony  and  comfort,  when  consciousness  again  disappears. 
This  law  is  an  attempt  at  synthesis  of  the  labors  of  the  psy- 
chanalysts,  the  behaviourists,  and  the  students  of  the  internal 


THE  BACKGROUNDS  OF  PERSONALITY  197 

secretions  (Freud,  Jims.  Adler,  Sherrington,  Watson,  Von 
Bechterew,  Kempf,  Crile,  Cannon,  Cushing,  Fraenkel  are  the 
great  names  of  the  movement).  Most  of  the  details,  and  all  of 
the  quantitative  applications  of  the  law  still  remain  to  be  worked 
out.  But  a  statement  like  the  following  of  Cushing,  the  eminent 
surgeon-student  of  the  endocrines,  that  "it  is  quite  probable  that 
the  psychopathology  of  everyday  life  hinges  largely  upon  the 
effect  of  ductless  gland  discharges  upon  the  nervous  system," 
shows  which  way  the  wind  is  blowing. 

In  the  face  of  these  conceptions  the  position  of  the  psychanalyst 
as  a  practical  therapeutist  becomes  clearer,  and  the  causes  of 
his  failure  when  he  fails.  In  the  first  place,  he  deals  with  psychic 
results  as  processes,  and  ignores  the  physiology  of  their  pro- 
duction. Since  a  true  cure  of  the  neurosis,  what  he  is  after,  is 
impossible  without  a  removal  of  the  cause,  a  disturbance  in  the 
vegetative  apparatus,  he  cannot  succeed  where  an  automatic 
adjustment  among  the  viscera  does  not  follow  his  probings  and 
ferretings  of  the  unconscious.  In  the  second  place,  he  disregards 
the-  existence  of  a  soil  for  the  planting  of  the  malign  complexes 
in  the  individual  in  whom  they  grow  and  flourish.  That  soil  is 
composed  in  part  of  the  endocrine  relations  within  the  vegetative 
apparatus.  And  as  we  can  often  attack  that  soil  more  effectively 
and  radically  from  the  endocrine  end  than  from  the  experience 
end  (e.  g.,  repressed  episodes)  we  may  transform  the  soil  and 
make  it  barren  rock  for  morbid  complexes,  at  any  rate.  The 
concept  of  the  endocrine-vegetative  apparatus  as  the  determinant 
of  normal  and  abnormal  behaviour,  emotional  reactions  and  dis- 
turbances of  power  should  in  time  cause  even  the  most  fanatic 
of  the  psychanalysts  to  recognize  the  functional  basis  of  the 
mental  acrostics  they  are  so  fond  of  dissecting. 

Natural  Ability 

Another  achievement  of  the  psychanalysts  is  the  recognition  of 
the  influence  of  organic  and  functional  inferiorities  of  the  indi- 
vidual upon  the  history  of  his  personality.  Gross  organ  inferiori- 
ties are  those  which  are  definite  handicaps  in  the  struggle  for 
success  in  society,  such  as  heart  disease.  Such  handicaps,  how- 
ever, are  limited  to  relatively  few  of  a  population.  The  raison 
d'etre  of  the  greater  number  of  minor  mental  inefficiencies  the 
psychanalyst  puts  down  to  handicaps  in  the  unconscious.  Again 
he  mistakes  figurative  imagery  for  explanations.     The  concep- 


198      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

tion  of  endocrine  diversity  in  the  make-up  supplies  us  with  the 
rationale  of  the  vast  majority  of  organic  and  functional  defects 
and  inferiorities,  in  short,  subnormalities  of  any  group,  large  or 
small. 

Moreover,  how  would  the  psychanalyst  explain  the  occurrence 
and  influence  of  organic  and  functional  superiorities  and  their 
tremendous  influence  upon  the  individual  and  society?  We  live  in 
a  generation  which  has  acquired  a  flair  for  the  pathologic.  Un- 
doubtedly it  is  a  soul-sick  generation,  and  its  interest  in  sickness 
of  the  mind  is  only  natural.  Just  the  same,  whatever  advances, 
improvements,  progress,  have  been  made  (and  certainly  a  number 
of  the  changes  in  his  environment,  external  and  internal,  must 
be  admitted  to  be  changes  for  the  better)  have  been  made,  not  by 
natural  disability,  but  by  natural  ability.  What  is  the  phys- 
iology of  natural  ability? 

The  finest  study  of  natural  ability  that  has  as  yet  been  com- 
posed is  Francis  Galton's  on  Hereditary  Genius.  It  also  remains 
the  best  study  of  the  natural  conditions  of  success.  He  showed 
that  of  the  type  of  man  he  classed  as  "illustrious"  there  occurred 
about  one  in  a  million,  and  of  the  type  "eminent"  about  two 
hundred  and  fifty  in  a  million.  Of  the  qualities  which  determine 
natural  ability  of  this  kind,  he  selected  inherent  capacity,  zeal, 
and  perseverance  as  the  three  prerequisites.  And  he  states  that 
"If  a  man  is  gifted  with  vast  intellectual  ability,  eagerness  to. 
work,  and  power  of  working,  I  cannot  comprehend  how  such  a 
man  should  be  suppressed."  "Such  men  (those  who  have  gained 
great  reputations)  biographies  show  to  be  haunted  and  driven  by 
an  incessant,  instinctive  craving  for  intellectual  work."  "They 
.  .  .  work  ...  to  satisfy  a  natural  craving  for  brain  work." 
"It  is  very  unlikely  that  any  conjunction  of  circumstances  should 
supply  a  stimulus  to  brain  work  commensurate  with  what  these 
men  carry  in  their  own  constitutions." 

What  is  this  inherent  craving  for  brain  work?  What  is  this 
zeal?  And  what  is  power  of  endurance  and  perseverance,  the 
quality  of  stamina?  How  are  they  to  be  interpreted  in  terms  of 
the  internal  secretions? 

In  view  of  what  has  been  said  of  the  ante-pituitary  as  the 
gland  of  intellectuality,  studies  of  intellectually  gifted  people 
having  shown  well  functioning  large  pituitaries,  and  of  mental 
defectives  in  a  certain  number  of  cases  a  small  limited  pituitary, 
it  is  justifiable  to  regard  the  factor  of  inherent  capacity  as  a 
function  of  the  ante-pituitary.    The  factor  of  zeal  or  enthusiasm 


THE  BACKGROUNDS  OF  PERSONALITY  199 

points  to  the  thyroid.  Markedly  enthusiastic  types  are  thyroid 
dominant  types.  Vigor  as  a  third  factor,  the  ability  to  stand 
stress  and  strain  of  continued  effort  is  dependent  upon  good 
adrenal  and  interstitial  cell  function.  So  we  may  say  that  crav- 
ing and  capacity  for  brain  work  plus  ardor  plus  perseverance  in 
its  pursuit,  the  triplicate  of  natural  ability,  are  the  reflections 
in  conduct  and  character  of  balanced  and  sufficient  ante- 
pituitary,  thyroid,  and  adrenal-interstitial  contributions  in  the 
chemical  formula  of  the  personality.  In  the  chapter  on  historic 
personages  analyzed  from  the  endocrine  viewpoint,  we  shall  see 
that  some  of  the  most  eminent  and  illustrious  people  of  history 
have  been  pituitary-centered. 

Mental  Deficiency 

Natural  ability  grows  in  an  endocrine  soil  of  a  particular  kind, 
perhaps  affected  by  the  internal  secretions  much  as  natural  soil 
is  by  fertilizers  like  phosphates  or  nitrates.  Increased  produc- 
tion follows  increased  fertilization.  Natural  disability  must  vary 
similarly  with  a  perversion  or  improper  mixture,  deficiency  or 
absence  of  the  hormones  that  combine  in  natural  ability. 

It  is  assumed  as  a  matter  of  course  that  the  brain  itself  is 
there,  which,  to  carry  out  our  analogy,  means  that  the  crude  soil 
or  earth  is  there.  Sufficient  quantity  and  adequate  quality  of 
nerve  tissue  must  be  regarded  as  prerequisite.  If  the  brain  has 
been  damaged  in  any  way  during  development  or  birth,  if  it  has 
been  smashed  up  in  any  way,  or  if  it  has  failed  to  evolve  the 
minimum  number  of  healthy  nerve  cells,  the  endocrine  influence 
becomes  negligible.  It  is  like  attempting  to  insert  a  key  into  a 
door  which  has  no  lock. 

It  is  among  the  specimens  of  normality  of  the  brain  cells  that 
we  may  look  for  our  examples  of  endocrine  mental  deficiency. 
Included  are  all  sorts  of  examples  of  feeble-mindedness  varying 
from  the  moron  to  the  imbecile  and  idiot,  arrested  brain  life. 
The  cretin  is  the  classic  type  of  mental  deficiency  due  to  en- 
docrine insufficiency,  curable  or  improvable  by  the  proper 
handling. 

Insanity,  degeneration  of  the  normal  brain  life,  may  be  caused 
by  an  upset  of  the  endocrine  balance.  Among  the  commonest 
manifestations  of  insanity  are  excitements  and  depressions, 
apathies  and  manias,  hallucinations,  delusions  and  obsessions,  all 
of  which  are  reproducible  under  known  conditions  of  internal 


200      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

secretion  excess  or  failure.  Alternating  states  of  mania  and  de- 
pression are  caused  in  some  instances  by  extreme  hyperthyroid- 
ism. The  critical  periods  of  life,  when  a  profound  revolution  is 
overturning  the  endocrine  equilibrium,  puberty,  pregnancy,  and 
the  menopause,  are  the  periods  of  most  frequent  occurrence  of 
insanity,  when  mental  instability  reveals  endocrine  instability 
(Dementia  praecox,  pregnancy  psychosis,  menopause  neurosis). 
Actual  insanity  need  not  be  the  only  manifestation.  By  far  the 
greater  number  of  mental  disturbances  due  to  aberrations  of  the 
internal  secretions  never  see  an  asylum  or  a  doctor.  They  live 
more  or  less  close  to  the  borderline  of  insanity  as  persons  who 
have  spells,  eccentricities  and  peculiarities,  hysteria,  tics  or  just 
"nervousness." 

About  two-thirds  of  mental  deficiency  is  definitely  inherited, 
about  one-third  acquired.  It  is  the  opinion  of  a  number  of  psy- 
chologists that  it  is  inherited  as  what  the  Mendelians  call  a 
recessive,  that  is  as  a  trait  which  will  be  overshadowed,  if  there 
is  admixture  of  normal  mentality,  but  will  crop  up  by  breeding 
with  another  mental  defective.  What  we  know  of  the  endocrine 
factors  in  heredity  leads  us  to  suppose  that  it  is  the  mating  of 
one  marked  endocrine  insufficiency  with  another  that  is  often 
responsible  for  the  inherited  tendency  to  feeble-mindedness  and 
insanity.  The  effect  of  the  hormone  system  upon  the  vegetative 
apparatus  may  create  "the  more  obscure  insanities  and  quasi- 
insanities.  The  direct  action  of  the  internal  secretions  upon  the 
brain  cells,  producing  a  sort  of  hair  trigger  situation  within 
them,  may  cause  the  explosive  discharges  from  them  which  ap- 
pear as  overpowering  impulses  or  uncontrollable  conduct.  The 
waves  of  feeling  which  precede  them  are  unquestionably  en- 
docrine determined.  The  wave  of  fear  a  cat  experiences  upon 
seeing  a  dog  is  accompanied  and  indeed  preceded  by  an  increase 
of  the  amount  of  adrenalin  in  the  blood.  The  picture  of  fright, 
as  observed  in  a  so-called  normal  person,  staring  eyes,  trembling 
hands,  dry  lips  and  mouth,  corresponds  to  the  portrait  of  the 
appearance  in  hyperthyroidism.  In  persons  afflicted  with  uncon- 
trollable impulses,  the  inhibiting  hormones  may  not  be  present 
in  sufficient  quantity. 

Feeble-mindedness,  ranging  from  stupidity  to  imbecility,  may 
also  be  a  direct  effect  of  insufficient  endocrine  supply  to  the 
brain  cells.  When  there  is  not  enough  of  the  thyroid  secretion 
in  the  blood,  the  tissue  between  the  cells  in  the  brain  become 
clogged  and  thickened,  so  that  a  gros,s  barrier  to  the  passage  of 


THE  BACKGROUNDS  OF  PERSONALITY         201 

the  nerve  impulses  is  created.  We  have  here  an  illustration  of 
internal  secretion  lack  actually  producing  gross  changes  in  the 
brain.  But  without  a  doubt,  most  endocrine  influences  upon  the 
brain,  at  work  every  minute  and  second  of  its  life,  are  the  subtle 
ones  of  molecular  chemistry  and  atomic  energetics.  We  know 
that  such  mental  qualities  as  irritability  and  stupidity,  fatiga- 
bility, and  the  power  to  recover  quickly  or  slowly  from  fatigue, 
sexual  potency  and  impotence,  apathy  and  enthusiasm  are  en- 
docrine qualities.  We  know  also  that  the  thyroid  dominant  tends 
to  be  irritable  and  excitable,  the  pituitary  deficient  to  be  placid 
and  gentle,  the  adrenal  dominant  to  be  assertive  and  pugnacious, 
the  thymus-centered  to  be  childish  and  easy-go-lucky  and  the 
gonad  deficient  to  be  secretive  and  shy.  This  brings  us  to  the 
relation  of  the  internal  secretions  to  the  type  of  personality  as  a 
whole. 


CHAPTER  X 
THE  TYPES  OF  PERSONALITY 

The  Endocrine  Personality 

If  a  single  gland  can  dominate  the  life  history  of  an  individual 
it  becomes  possible  to  speak  of  endocrine  types,  the  result  of  the 
endocrine  analysis  of  the  individual.  Studying  endocrine  traits  of 
physique,  life  reactions,  disease  tendencies,  hereditary  history 
and  blood  chemistry,  one  may  gain  an  insight  into  the  composi- 
tion or  constitution  of  an  individual.  The  endocrine  type  of  an 
individual  is  a  summary  of  these,  his  behaviour  in  the  past,  and 
is  also  a  prediction  of  his  reactions  in  the  future,  much  as  a 
chemical  formula  outlines  what  we  believe  to  be  the  skeleton 
of  a  compound  substance  as  deducible  from  its  properties  under 
varying  conditions.  Only,  admittedly,  as  yet  the  endocrine 
label  is  but  roughly  qualitative  and  most  crudely  quantitative, 
whereas  the  chemical  formula  is  the  essence  of  the  exact. 

However,  the  fact  remains  that  though  we  are  only  upon  the 
first  rungs  of  the  ladder,  we  are  upon  the  ladder.  The  horizon 
undoubtedly  broadens.  We  possess  a  new  way  of  looking  upon 
humanity,  a  fresh  transforming  light  upon  those  strange  phe- 
nomena, ourselves.  Of  the  ugly  achievements  of  that  dreadful 
century,  the  nineteenth,  the  most  illuminating  was  the  discovery 
of  itself  as  the  ape-parvenu.  Yes,  we  are  all  animals  now,  it  said 
to  itself,  and  set  its  teeth  in  the  cut-throat  game  of  survival. 
But  there  was  no  understanding  in  that  evil  motto  of  a  dis- 
illusioned heart.  The  ape-parvenu,  desperately  lonely  and 
secretive,  has  still  to  understand  himself. 

Let  us  be  clear  if  we  can.  There  is  perhaps  a  certain  presump- 
tion in  the  phrase,  the  endocrine  type.  It  is  ambitious,  and  per- 
haps will  not  fulfill  its  promise.  But  it  is  useful  because  it  points 
a  parallel  and  an  ideal.  As  Wilhelm  Ostwald  never  tired  of  re- 
peating, H20  is  a  complete  shorthand  record  for  the  bundle  of 
qualities  commonly  known  as  water.  It  is  an  example  of  that 
highest  task  of  mind,  synthesis.  It  is  the  highest  synthesis  of  the 
studies  of  the  internal  secretions  that  certain  combinations  of 

202 


THE  TYPES  OF  PERSONALITY  203 

them,  permutations  and  blendings  of  them,  are  responsible  for 
those  unique  wonders  of  the  universe,  personalities. 

The  riddle  of  personality  I  Are  we  at  last  upon  the  track  of  its 
uncovering?  That  elusive  mystery,  which  philosophers  have 
wrapped  in  the  thousand  veils  of  Greek  and  Latin  words,  and 
psychologists,  even  unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation  of 
Freudians,  have  floundered  about  in,  moles  before  a  dazzling  sun, 
is  it  to  be  unwound  for  our  inspection?  Think  of  the  human 
soul.  What  an  invisible,  intangible  chameleon  is  its  true  reality ! 
Watch  it,  and  you  see  something  that  seems  to  uncurl  and  expand 
like  a  feather  with  exultation  and  delight  and  joy,  to  contract 
and  stiffen  into  a  billiard  ball  with  fear  and  pride,  shrewd  caution 
and  vigilant  malevolence,  to  rear  back  and  spark  fire  like  light- 
ning with  anger  and  temper,  and  to  crawl  and  slither  with  abjec- 
tion and  smirking  slyness,  when  it  needs  to.  This  multiplex 
Thing-Behind-Life,  are  we  really  about  to  dissect  it  into  its 
elements? 

Personality  embraces  much  more  than  merely  the  psychic 
attributes.  It  is  not  the  least  important  of  the  lessons  of  en- 
docrine analysis  that  there  is  no  soul,  and  no  body,  either. 
Rather  a  soul-body,  or  body-soul,  or  the  patterns  of  the  living 
flame.  The  closer  tracking  of  the  internal  secretions  leads  us 
into  the  secrets  of  the  living  flame,  why  it  lives,  and  how  it  lives, 
the  strange  diversities  of  its  colorings  and  music  and  the  odd 
variations  in  its  energy,  vitality  and  longevity.  Why  it  flickers, 
why  it  flares  and  glares,  spurts,  flutters,  burns  hard  or  soft, 
orange-blue  or  yellow. 

The  medieval  scholiasts,  who  fought  as  fiercely  about  names  as 
nations  about  territories,  divided  men  into  the  sanguine,  the 
bilious,  the  lymphatic  and  the  nervous.  It  was  a  pretty  crude 
classification  of  different  constitutions.  The  endocrine  criteria, 
more  exact  and  concrete,  divide  them  into  the  adrenal  centered, 
the  thyroid  centered,  the  thymus  centered,  the  pituitary  centered, 
the  gonad  centered,  and  their  combinations. 

The  Adrenal  Personalities 

An  adrenal  personality  is  one  dominated  by  the  ups  and 
downs  of  his  adrenal  gland.  In  the  large,  the  curve  of  his  life 
is  the  curve  of  secretion  by  this  gland,  both  of  its  cortex  and 
medulla.  Such  an  adrenal  personality  is  entirely  normal,  within 
the  definition  of  the  normal  as  something  not  threatening  the 


204     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

duration  of  life,  nor  comfortable  adaptation  to  it.  So  are  the 
other  glandular  types.  No  sharp  line  can  be  drawn  between  the 
normal  and  the  abnormal  in  any  case,  the  borderland  is  wide, 
the  transitions  many. 

The  skin  is  one  of  the  chief  clues  to  the  adrenal  personality. 
The  relation  between  the  adrenal  and  the  skin  dates  way  back 
in  the  evolutionary  scale,  for  adrenalin  has  been  isolated  directly 
from  pigment  deposits  in  the  epidermis  of  frogs.  Skin  pigment 
bears  a  direct  relation  to  the  reaction  of  the  organism  to  light, 
especially  the  ultraviolet  rays,  to  the  radiation  of  heat,  and 
hence  to  the  fundamental  productions  and  consumptions  of  energy 
by  the  cells.  So  the  gland  of  energy  for  emergencies  writes  its 
signature  always  all  over  the  skin. 

In  an  adrenal  personality,  the  epidermis  is  always  slightly, 
somewhat,  or  deeply  pigmented.  The  pigmentation  is  due  to  a 
dark  brown  deposit  lightly  or  thickly  scattered  over  the  skin. 
With  the  general  diffuse  pigmentation  or  darkening  there  are 
often  the  black  spots,  the  pigmented  birth  marks,  or  the  lighter 
ones  of  freckles.  The  latter  signify  some  permanent  or  transi- 
tory adrenal  inadequacy  in  the  past,  ante-natal  or  post-natal, 
of  the  individual,  and  presage  the  same  in  his  future.  These 
spots  have  been  frequently  observed  to  appear  after  an  attack  of 
diphtheria  or  influenza.  There  seems  to  be  more  tuberculosis 
among  those  who  have  them  than  those  who  do  not.  We  there- 
fore say  that  diphtheria,  influenza  and  tuberculosis  stand  out  as 
adrenal-attacking  diseases,  which  have  a  greater  power  to  kill, 
cripple  or  hurt  those  with  defective  adrenal  constitutions  than 
others. 

The  hair  of  the  adrenal  type  is  characteristic:  ubiquitous, 
thick,  coarse  and  dry.  It  is  prominent  over  the  chest,  abdomen 
and  back,  and  has  a  tendency  to  kink.  Often  its  color  is  not  the 
expected:  an  Italian's  will  be  yellow,  a  Norwegian's  jet  black.  It 
has  been  stated  that  most  red-haired  persons  are  adrenal  types. 
Such  persons  also  have  well-marked  canine  teeth  which  is  another 
adrenal  trait.    They  also  have  a  low  hair  line. 

When  the  adrenal  type  has  a  properly  co-operating  pituitary 
and  thyroid,  he  possesses  a  striking  vigor,  energy  and  persistence. 
With  a  fortunate  combination,  he  develops  into  a  progressive 
winning  fighter,  arriving  at  the  top  in  the  long  run  every  time. 

Brain  work  is  pretty  well  lubricated  in  the  well-compensated 
adrenal  type.    Brain  fag  is  closely  associated  with,  if  not  de- 


THE  TYPES  OF  PERSONALITY  205 

pendent  upon,  adrenal  fag,  particularly  of  the  cortex.  Brain  tissue 
and  adrenal  cortex  tissue  are  near  relatives,  and  a  normal  human 
brain  never  develops  without  a  normal  or  normal  adrenal  cor- 
tex. The  adrenal  type  with  an  hypertrophied  adrenal  cortex 
is  always  efficient. 

Among  women,  the  adrenal  type  is  always  masculinoid.  If 
physically  feminine — due  to  adequate  feminine  reactions  on  the 
part  of  the  other  endocrines — she  will  at  least  show  the  qualities 
of  a  psychic  virilism.  A  generation  ago,  such  a  woman  had  to 
repress  her  inherent  trends  and  instincts  in  the  face  of  public 
opinion  and  law,  and  so  suffered  from  a  feeling  of  inferiority. 
Nowadays,  these  women  are  striding  forward  and  will  attain  a 
good  many  of  the  masculine  heights,  commanding  responsible 
executive  positions  and  high  salaries.  An  adrenal  type  will  prob- 
ably be  the  first  woman  president  of  the  United  States. 

However,  that  presupposes  a  normal  range  of  action  of  the 
other  endocrines.  Let  there  be  some  quirk  or  weakness  elsewhere 
in  the  chain  of  hormones,  and  instead  of  the  successful  woman, 
behold  the  spinsters,  the  maiden  aunts,  the  prudes  and  cranks  who 
never  satisfactorily  adapt  themselves  in  society.  To  them  must 
be  given  a  good  deal  of  credit  for  the  suffrage  revolution.  These 
unadapted  adrenals,  as  we  may  call  them,  once  sowed  the  seeds, 
expending  their  masculinism  in  the  struggles  of  the  pioneers' 
martyrdoms,  preparing  the  harvest  their  sisters,  the  more  ade- 
quate adrenal  types,  will  now  reap.  The  unadapted  adrenals  of 
today  will  have  to  look  for  new  worlds  to  conquer. 

So  much  for  the  compensated  adrenal  types.  They  are  the 
good  workers,  the  efficients,  the  kinetic  successes  of  the  driven 
world.  They  make,  at  a  certain  level,  good  slave  drivers  be- 
cause they  feel  within  themselves  a  driving  force.  But  suppose 
the  adrenal  type  becomes  uncompensated,  or  perhaps  is  inade- 
quate to  the  demands  of  life  to  start  with.  Then  the  story  be- 
comes different.  The  perfect  efficient  superman  of  business  or 
profession  begins  to  lag.  Though  he  is  himself  in  the  morning, 
he  begins  to  lag  in  the  afternoon.  That  is  when  he  tires.  In 
the  evening  he  is  all  in.  More  sleep,  recreational  trips,  vacations 
slip  into  the  rank  of  necessities,  whereas  previously  they  had 
been  laughed  at  as  luxuries.  More  minute  or  large  moles  emerge 
in  the  skin,  especially  if  the  individual  is  of  a  fair  type.  If  a 
strenuous  effort  is  not  made  to  give  the  adrenals  an  opportunity 
to  recuperate,  or  if  adjustment  on  the  part  of  the  other  glands 


206     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

does  not  occur,  this  stage  of  intermittent  and  remittent  adrenal 
inadequacy  gives  way  in  turn  to  the  state  of  permanent  adrenal 
insufficiency. 

The  adrenal  insufficient  is  important  because  he  is  to  be  seen 
everywhere.  Built  along  the  same  lines  as  the  adrenal  adequate 
and  apt  to  be  taken  for  him,  he  differs  and  contrasts  vividly  below 
the  surface.  One  may  sum  him  up  by  saying  that  he  is  one 
variety  of  neurasthenic,  perhaps  the  most  frequent  variety. 
Cold  hands  and  feet  plague  him,  cold  feet  psychically  as  well  as 
physically,  for  a  chronic  and  obsessive  indecision  is  one  of  his 
most  prominent  complaints.  A  fatigability,  that  goes  with  a  low 
blood  pressure,  lowered  body  temperature  and  a  disturbed  ability 
to  utilize  sugar  for  fuel  purposes,  is  another  of  his  chief  com- 
plaints. The  skin  often  presents  an  instability  of  the  blood  ves- 
sels, so  that  they  now  react  to  stroking  with  a  blanched  instead 
of  a  reddened  effect.  Irritability,  a  liability  to  go  off  the  handle 
at  the  slightest  provocation,  and  a  consequent  complete  exhaus- 
tion that,  after  an  outburst,  sends  him  to  bed,  is  conspicuous. 
Dismissed  sometimes  contemptuously  as  weaklings,  they  are  ac- 
cused of  laziness,  craziness,  and  haziness.  In  their  psychic 
attempts  to  compensate,  they  land  into  all  kinds  of  hot  water, 
from  which  friends,  relatives  or  luck  extricate  them  sometimes. 
The  other  times  they  go  to  the  wall. 

The  congenital  adrenal  deficient  is  a  special  problem.  If  the 
history  of  such  an  individual  is  followed  from  birth,  one  gets 
a  pretty  typical  story.  The  genealogy  is  nervous.  Nervous  is 
a  word  of  many  meanings.  But  when  parents  confess  themselves 
nervous,  it  generally  means  a  mental  and  emotional  instability 
of  some  sort.  Sometimes  the  idea  is  camouflaged  as  high  strung. 
In  the  feeding  narrative  of  the  child,  one  finds  not  occasional 
incidents  or  episodes,  but  continued  trouble,  difficulties,  adven- 
tures. Even  after  the  first  year  or  two,  the  nutritional  chronicle 
is  not  satisfactory.  Lack  of  appetite,  lack  of  energy,  lack  of 
response  to  stimuli  are  its  keynotes  and  the  motifs  of  the  later 
years  of  childhood. 

Growth  is  a  strain.  It  becomes  a  task  to  make  these  children 
grow  and  gain.  Chronically  below  the  average  weight  and  height, 
herculean  efforts  are  made  by  the  conscientious  parents,  but  with 
small  success. 

With  the  entry  of  school  life  and  competition,  the  curtain  rises 
upon  the  real  tragedy,  a  tragedy  in  which  the  avenging  Fates  are 
the  usual   ignorance,   stupidity   and  misunderstanding.    If  the 


THE  TYPES  OF  PERSONALITY  207 

teachers  alone  are  duty-obsessed,  or  perhaps  sadistic,  the  child 
endures  the  agonies  of  repeated  admonitions,  demotions,  and 
punishments.  However,  a  certain  thick-skinned  indifference  may 
develop  to  protect  the  sufferer. 

If  the  parents  are  in  addition  ambitious,  or  proud,  or  competi- 
tive, then  woe  betide  the  victim.  With  their  nervous  dispositions, 
it  is  the  school  and  the  tutor  who  are  to  be  blamed,  if  not  the 
child.  From  school  to  school,  from  system  to  system,  from 
novelty  to  fad,  from  doctor  to  doctor,  from  fakir  to  charlatan, 
from  pillar  to  post,  they  wander  in  search  of  an  education. 
Educational  cults  by  the  dozen  have  sprouted  and  grown  fat 
around  these  unfortunates. 

The  chief  defect  of  the  congenital  adrenal  inadequate  is  an 
insufficiently  developed  adrenal  cortex.  That  means  an  insuf- 
ficiently developed  brain  and  nervous  system.  For  we  have 
seen  how  closely  all  these  are  related  in  development.  Now  edu- 
cation can  never  be  the  education  of  a  vacuum.  And  we  have 
to  deal  here  with  a  relative  vacuum.  When  there  are  no  poten- 
tialities, there  can  be  no  education.  Where  the  potentialities  are 
limited,  education  must  be  limited.  The  congenital  adrenal  inade- 
quate is  defined  in  physical  and  mental  energy.  Hence  educators 
cannot  drive  him.  Up  to  a  certain  point  he  can  be  led,  but  no 
farther.  He  should  not  be  expected  to  go  to  a  college,  and  waste 
the  opportunity  of  some  one  financially  unlucky,  but  whose  en- 
docrine system  is  more  generously  endowed. 

Not  that  the  outlook  is  absolutely  hopeless.  Puberty,  with  its 
tremendous  changes  in  the  glands  of  internal  secretion,  when  one 
can  almost  hear  the  clicks  and  the  whirring  of  the  wheels  in  the 
internal  machinery,  may  transform.  The  unfathomed  possibili- 
ties of  gland  therapy  are  still  to  be  probed.  But  the  general 
rule  remains. 

The  Reactions  to  Modernism 

The  adrenal  personalities  in  all  their  variations  must  be  safe- 
guarded and  carefully  looked  after  in  the  strained  complexities 
of  modern  post-bellum  civilization.  In  a  sense,  the  adrenal 
type  is  the  Atlas  of  the  twentieth  century  world,  and  small  won- 
der that  he  and  his  descendants  stagger  beneath  the  burden.  The 
adrenals  are  organs  for  the  mobilization  of  energy,  physical  and 
mental,  for  emergencies.  They  are  the  glands  which  meet  shocks 
and  neutralize  the  effects  of  shock.    In  the  solitary  animal,  the 


208     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

everyday  producers  of  shock  are  pain,  fright  and  wounds.  The 
adrenal  mechanisms  oversecrete  to  encounter  the  enemy,  and 
then  there  is  a  period  of  rest  and  recuperation.  Man,  however, 
with  the  growth  of  his  imagination  and  the  increase  in  number 
and  density  of  his  surrounding  herd,  has  become  the  subject  of 
continuous  stimulation.  In  the  past,  this  was  balanced  by  the 
almost  universal  dominance  of  some  religious  belief,  as  an  effec- 
tive opiate.  Concepts  like  Fate,  Predestination,  an  all-guiding 
and  all-wise  Providence,  relieved  and  shielded  the  adrenals,  and 
acted  as  valuable  adjuvants  for  the  preservation  of  normality. 

The  nineteenth  century  witnessed  the  birth  and  expansion  of 
a  great  number  of  new  stimulant  reagents,  the  discoveries  of 
physics  and  chemistry,  which,  with  the  climax  of  the  World  War 
of  1914-1918,  have  made  for  a  more  or  less  complete  deliquescence 
of  accepted  religion.  For  the  great  majority  there  was  no  faith 
to  take  its  place.  War,  pre-war,  and  post-war  shocks  have  con- 
tinued with  their  incessant  pounding  upon  the  reserves  of  energy. 
Under  these  conditions  the  adrenal  personalities  are  bound  to 
suffer.  The  other  endocrine  types  suffer,  too,  but  quite  differ- 
ently. 

Today,  anti-adrenal,  anti-religious  ideas  are  epidemic.  Of 
these,  first  prize  belongs  to  a  cult  of  egotism  fathered  by  the 
Napoleonic  Idea,  consciously  assertive  and  self-conscious  in  Max 
Stirner's  "The  Ego  and  His  Own,"  which  engendered  a  swarm  of 
imitators  and  plagiarists.  Human  beings  are  all  incorrigible 
egoists  more  or  less,  furtive  or  frank.  But  social  and  religious 
codes  curbed  the  most  narcissistic  of  kings  and  conquerors.  Be- 
fore Napoleon,  all  of  them  vowed  allegiance  and  expressed  sub- 
mission to  some  sort  of  deity,,  confessed  some  fear  of  the  Lord 
in  their  hearts.  But  the  ideas  of  Napoleon  flouted  all  that.  The 
unscrupulous  predatory  who  put  effectual  scheming  for  the 
self  plainly  above  every  other  consideration  and  rode  rough  shod 
over  all  his  fellows  appealed  powerfully  to  the  latent  animality 
of  the  adrenal  types.  Then  came  the  dawning  awareness  of 
capital  and  labor  of  themselves  as  classes  fiercely  opposed  for- 
ever in  the  policy  of  cut-throat  versus  cut-throat.  The  labor 
organizations  and  the  commercial  companies  and  corporations 
pitted  themselves  against  each  other  consciously.  Doctrines  like 
"Property  is  but  Robbery,"  "Everyone  for  himself  and  the  devil 
take  the  hindmost,"  the  "Iron  Law  of  Wages"  and  the  "Facts  is 
Facts"  of  the  Gradgrinds  were  the  phrases  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury that  assisted.     Finally  came  the  Darwinian  revelation  of 


THE  TYPES  OF  PERSONALITY  209 

man  as  the  ape-parvenu,  which  completed  the  disintegration  of 
the  old  restraints. 

Man  seemed  to  see  himself  now  for  the  first  time  stark  and 
naked.  But  Man  consists  of  many  varieties,  and  all  reacted 
differently  to  the  image  in  the  clouded  mirror.  There  was  uni- 
versal attempt  at  suppression.  But  slowly  the  anti-adrenal  forces 
infiltrated  every  activity  and  every  soul.  Like  a  hidden  focus  of 
infection  in  the  body,  it  germinated  and  poisoned.  A  slow  fever 
crept  into  life.  A  febrile  quality  tinged  the  acquisition  of  wealth, 
the  concentration  upon  sex,  and  the  desperate  pursuit,of  the  novel 
stimulus. 

Then,  like  the  hand  that  appeared  at  Belshazzar's  Feast,  came 
the  War,  only  it  was  a  hand  that  stayed  with  a  long  flashing  light- 
ning sword  in  its  grip,  sweeping  pitilessly  among  the  erstwhile 
dancing  multitudes  to  mutilate  and  destroy.  A  good  many  peo- 
ple, with  that  sturdy  animality  George  Santayana  speaks  some- 
where of  as  a  trait  of  mankind,  set  out  to  enjoy  the  War.  It 
was  a  new  sort  of  good  time  upon  an  incredibly  large  scale.  It 
was  an  undreamed-of  opportunity.  The  mechanisms  of  suppres- 
sion of  the  mind  render  it  incapable  of  appreciating  horror  until 
encountered.  And  so  thousands  with  dangerously  unstable 
adrenals  were  plunged  into  the  most  trying  conditions  possible. 
Hundreds  of  them,  already  shaken,  on  the  borderland  of  insta- 
bility, reacted  with  the  phenomena  of  breakdown  of  control, 
lumped  with  a  host  of  other  phenomena,  under  the  general  rubric 
of  "shell  shock." 

That  alone  was  not  all.  If  hundreds  collapsed,  thousands  ap- 
proached the  verge  of  collapse.  They  survived  and  were  dis- 
charged from  the  armies  as  normal.  They  reappear  in  civil  life 
as  cases  of  "nerves."  Ordinarily  that  would  mean  that  they  would 
be  classed  as  failures.  But  such  have  been  the  psychologic  reac- 
tions to  the  war  that  all  kinds  of  compensations  in  the  way  of 
dangerous  mental  states  have  become  frequent  in  these  inade- 
quate adrenal  types.  A  trend  to  violence  and  a  resentful  emotion- 
alism are  combined  with  desperate  attempts  to  spur  the  jaded 
adrenals  with  artificial  excitements.  Consequent  melancholia  and 
depression,  the  "blues,"  are  inevitable.  A  survey  of  drug  addicts 
would  probably  show  a  definite  percentage  of  this  type.  The 
same  applies  to  certain  petty  criminals  and  law  breakers. 

The  adrenal  element  in  the  personality  must  be  considered  in 
every  disturbance,  morbid,  personal,  or  social  involving  brunette 
types,  Huxley's  dark  white,  Mediterranean-Iberians,  red-haired 


210      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

persons,  and  even  pigment-spotted  fair  people.  Historians  have 
traced  the  earliest  civilization  to  the  doings  of  a  brunette  people, 
the  Sumerians,  the  first  to  build  cities  in  the  Euphrates-Tigris 
region  more  than  five  thousand  years  before  Christ  was  born. 
An  adrenalized  people  one  would,  expect  to  be  the  first  to  take 
advantage  of  possibilities  because  of  their  energy  capacity.  The 
earliest  Sumerian  stone  carvings  of  warriors  exhibit  an  under- 
sized skeleton  compared  with  the  large  head,  broad  face,  a  low 
hair  line  and  prominent  nose  that  would  fit  into  the  ensemble  of 
the  adrenal  type.  Certain  other  historical  aspects  of  the  adrenal 
personality  have  yet  to  be  worked  out. 

The  Pituitary  Personalities 

The  presence  of  two  antagonistic  elements  in  the  one  gland 
complicates  any  attempt  at  even  the  most  abstract  analysis  of 
a  personality  dominated  by  that  gland.  The  pituitary,  composed 
of  an  anterior  lobe  and  posterior  lobe,  supplies  two  fairly  un- 
complicated corresponding  types,  best  described  as  the  masculine 
pituitary  type,  and  the  feminine  pituitary  type.  The  masculine 
pituitary  type  is  one  determined  by  the  rule  of  the  anterior 
pituitary,  representing  superlative  brain  tone  and  action,  good 
all-around  growth  and  harmonious  general  function,  the  ideal 
masculine  organism.  The  feminine  pituitary  type  has  an  excess 
of  post-pituitary,  with  susceptibility  to  the  tender  emotions, 
sentimentalism,  and  emotionalism,  feminine  structural  lines. 
Ante-pituitary  dominance  in  a  male  reinforces  the  general  mascu- 
linity while  the  post-pituitary  depresses  it.  The  post-pituitary 
in  a  woman  augments  her  natural  trend,  ante-pituitary  tending 
to  counteract  it.  In  other  words,  post-pituitary  and  ovary  are 
conjunctive,  ante-pituitary  and  ovary  are  disjunctive,  post- 
pituitary  and  testis  are  opponents,  ante-pituitary  and  testis  are 
allies. 

One  mechanical  circumstance  involved  in  the  pituitary  per- 
sonalities may  be  the  determinant  of  the  entire  life  history. 
That  is  the  emphasized  fact  that  the  pituitary  is  encased  in  a 
small  bony  box,  at  the  base  of  the  skull.  The  size  of  this  bony 
box,  and  its  capacity  to  yield  to  the  various  pressures  of  a 
pituitary  enlarging  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  organism,  will 
often  spell  happiness  or  misery,  success  or  failure,  genius  or 
idiocy  for  the  man  or  woman.  Certain  possibilities  are  conceiv- 
able.   All  of  them  occur,  for  the  developments  of  X-ray  technique 


THE  TYPES  OF  PERSONALITY  211 

have  rendered  available  almost  a  direct  view  of  the  sella  turcica. 

In  the  first  place,  the  bony  box  may  be  definitely  too  small  to 
start  in  with.  That  means  a  small  and  so  potentially  inadequate 
pituitary,  both  anterior  and  posterior,  potentially  inadequate  in 
that  it  will  become  impossible  for  it  to  grow  and  produce  extra 
secretion  upon  demand.  Handicapped  thus,  the  unfortunate  so 
born  is  doomed  to  inferiority  and  very  little  can  be  done  for  him. 
He  will  not  develop  satisfactorily.  He  possesses  small  genital 
organs  which  will  not  evolve  properly  in  adolescence,  or  if  they 
will  not  stand  still,  tend  to  revert  to  the  opposite  sex  type.  Then 
he  tends  to  be  dwarfed,  fatigable,  adipose.  Among  these  types 
are  included  subjects  of  obsessions  and  compulsions  who  are  dull 
and  apathetic,  cannot  learn  or  maintain  inhibitions,  and  so,  with- 
out initiative,  evolve  into  moral  and  intellectual  degenerates, 
liable  to  epilepsy  and  the  most  remarkable  sex  aberrations.  All 
because  a  cranny  of  the  skull,  about  the  size  of  a  thimble,  is  not 
large  enough  for  their  dominating  gland. 

If  the  bone  of  the  cavity  of  the  pituitary  is  softer  and  yielding, 
so  that  some  enlargement  of  the  gland  is  possible,  especially  of 
the  anterior,  there  appear  rapid  growth  with  a  tendency  to  high 
blood  pressure,  great  mental  activity  associated  with  frequent  and 
severe  headaches  (often  of  the  migraine  type) ,  a  combination  of 
initiative  and  irritability  and  a  marked  sexuality.  X-ray  exam- 
ination of  the  sella  turcica  shows  what  is  called  erosion  of  the 
bone  as  it  yields  to  the  pressure  of  the  growing  gland. 

The  ideal  sella  turcica  for  the  ideal  pituitary  type  is  a  large 
room  in  which  the  gland  may  grow  and  reach  its  maximum  size 
and  so  its  maximum  function,  without  needing  to  exert  pressure 
or  destroy  and  erode  bone  in  front  of  it,  to  the  side  of  it  or  be- 
hind it.  The  distinctive  masculine  and  feminine  types,  classed 
as  the  normal,  belong  to  this  group.  Sometimes,  the  bone  in 
front  of  the  pituitary  will  yield,  while  the  one  in  the  rear  will  not, 
and  sometimes  the  conditions  are  reversed.  Thus  we  may  have 
ante-pituitary  sufficiency  with  post-pituitary  insufficiency,  or 
ante-pituitary  insufficiency  with  post-pituitary  sufficiency,  com- 
plexes which  contribute  to  create  the  grosser  functional  hermaph- 
rodite types  of  mixed  sex. 

In  the  average  feminine  pituitary  type  of  personality,  post- 
pituitary  dominates.  In  a  woman  and  to  a  lesser  degree  in  a  man, 
the  general  build  is  slight  and  rather  delicate.  The  skin  is  soft, 
moist,  and  hairless,  the  face  is  the  doll  or  Dresden  China  sort, 
with  a  roseate  or  creamy  complexion,  flushing  easily,  eyes  large 


212     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

and  prominent.  The  mouth  shows  a  high  arched  palate  and 
crowded  teeth  rather  long.  The  voice  is  high-pitched.  One  rec- 
ognizes the  traditional  womanly  woman,  petite  and  chic,  who 
always  marries  the  hero  in  stories.  She  is  usually  fond  of  chil- 
dren, easily  moved,  has  a  good  libido,  and  the  traditional 
feminine  traits.  When  unstable,  the  post-pituitary  type  is  rest- 
less and  hyperactive,  craves  excitement,  and  continual  change  of 
interest  and  scene,  a  new  pleasure  every  moment.  A  good  many 
of  the  women  of  today,  who  fifty  years  ago  would  have  been 
nice  sedate  girls  because  of  their  excellent  post-pituitary  consti- 
tution, have  been  irritated  by  the  atmosphere  of  post-1914  into 
the  excess  post-pituitary  state,  the  adventurous  never-satiated 
avid  pleasure  hunter,  in  whom  the  craving  for  stimulation  will 
stop  at  nothing.  F.  Scott  Fitzgerald  portrayed  an  exquisite  speci- 
men of  the  kind  in  his  short  story  "The  Jellybean,"  with  a  quasi- 
heroine  of  a  good  Southern  family,  built  to  be  a  high  standard 
wife  and  mother,  who  drinks,  swears,  gambles,  and  finally  marries 
on  a  dare.  Modern  post-pituitary  woman  is  excitement  mad  and 
thrill  chasing.  The  worst  of  it  is  that  the  resultant  personal 
tragedies  cannot  be  dismissed  as  transient  inevitables.  The 
heredity  of  the  internal  secretions  determines  that  the  offspring 
of  these  women  are  bound  to  be  pituitary  unstable,  the  least 
desirable  of  endocrine  instabilities  because  of  the  concomitant 
mental  effects.  Even  from  the  purely  selfish  point  of  view,  the 
standpoint  of  enlightened  selfishness,  the  post-pituitary  type  must 
beware  of  excesses.  For  disturbances  of  menstruation,  psychic 
fears,  anxieties,  states  of  suspicion  and  obsession,  various  pains 
are  among  the  penalties. 

A  period  of  post-pituitary  excess  as  an  effect  of  disease,  preg- 
nancy, or  the  rapid  life,  may  be  followed  by  post-pituitary 
deficiency  as  a  result  of  exhaustion  of  the  gland.  The  girl  or 
woman  then  becomes  fat  and  suffers  from  headaches  (the  fair, 
fat  and  forty  type)  yet  retains  a  certain  capacity  for  enjoyment 
which  enables  her  to  continue  gay,  happy  and  gentle,  kind,  inter- 
ested. So  she  contrasts  with  the  thyroid  deficient  who  gets  fat, 
but  also  dull,  stupid,  even  morose. 

The  masculine  pituitary  personality,  the  man  with  a  dominant 
anterior  pituitary  gland  in  a  roomy  sella  turcica  with  plenty  of 
space  to  grow  in,  is  the  ideal  virile  type.  They  are  generally  tall 
(unless  the  growth  of  the  long  bones  was  checked  too  early  by  a 
social  precocity  of  the  testes)  with  a  well-developed  strong  frame, 


THE  TYPES  OF  PERSONALITY  213 

large  firm  muscles,  and  proportionately  sized  hands  and  feet. 
The  head  is  of  the  marked  dolichocephalic  type,  flattened  at  the 
sides,  face  is  oval  more  or  less,  with  thick  eyebrows,  eyes  rather 
prominent,  nose  broadish  and  long,  lower  jaw  prominent  and  firm. 
Prominent  bony  points  like  the  check  bones,  the  elbows  and  the 
knees,  the  knuckle  joints  of  the  hands  and  feet.  The  teeth  are 
large,  especially  the  upper  middle  incisors,  and  they  are  usually 
spaced.  The  arms  and  legs  are  hairy.  High  grade  brains,  the 
ability  to  learn,  and  the  ability  to  control,  self-mastery  in  the 
sense  of  domination  of  the  lower  instincts  and  the  automatic 
reactions  of  the  vegetative  nervous  system,  the  rule  by  the  indi- 
vidual of  himself  and  his  environment  are  at  their  maximum  in 
him.  The  ante-pituitary  personality  is  educable  for  intelligence, 
and  even  intellect,  provided  the  proper  educational  stimulus  is 
supplied.  Men  of  brains,  practical  and  theoretical,  philosophers, 
thinkers,  creators  of  new  thoughts  and  new  goods,  belong  to  this 
group.  The  distinction  between  men  of  theoretical  genius,  whose 
minds  which  could  embrace  a  universe,  and  yet  fail  to  manage 
successfully  their  own  personal  everyday  lives,  and  the  men  of 
practical  genius,  who  can  achieve  and  execute,  the  great  engineers, 
and  industrial  men  lies  in  the  balance  between  the  ante-pituitary 
and  the  adrenal  cortex  primarily.  Men  like  Abraham  Lincoln 
and  George  Bernard  Shaw  belong  to  this  ante-pituitary  group. 

The  feminine  pituitary  personality,  in  whom  there  is  predom- 
inance of  the  post-pituitary  over  the  ante-pituitary,  occurs  in 
men.  The  type  is  short,  rounded  and  stout.  They  have  heads 
that  seem  too  large  for  their  bodies,  the  general  hair  distribution 
on  the  trunk  and  extremities  is  poor,  although  that  of  the  scalp 
and  face  is  plentiful,  and  they  acquire  an  abdominal  paunch 
early.  They  exhibit  the  feminine  tendency  to  periodicity  of 
function,  their  moods,  activities,  efficiency  are  cyclic,  reminding 
one  of  the  menstrual  variations  of  the  female.  This  rhythmicity 
saturates  their  personalities,  so  that  poetry  and  music  almost 
morbidly  appeal  to  them.  A  number  of  the  great  poets  and 
musicians  are  to  be  classified  as  of  the  feminine  pituitary  species. 
Last,  but  not  least,  they  are  the  hen-pecked  lovers  and  husbands. 
Sex  difficulties  are  frequent  in  their  history. 

The  determination  of  endocrine  type  and  tendencies,  the  pre- 
diction of  the  future  personality,  during  childhood  is  one  of  the 
developments  confidently  to  be  looked  for,  as  our  knowledge  of 
the  internal  secretions  will  grow.     The  possibilities  of  control 


214      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

loom  as  one  of  the  most  magnificent  promises  of  science.  Yet 
the  high  expectations  for  tomorrow  should  not  depress  our  respect 
for  the  achievements  of  today.  In  the  case  of  the  pituitary,  for 
instance,  a  hint  as  to  the  method  of  approach  is  furnished  by  the 
tabulation  of  the  traits  of  pituitary  dominance  and  pituitary  in- 
feriority in  children. 

Pituitary  sufficient  and  dominant: 
Large,  spare,  bony  frame 
Eyes  wide  apart 
Broad  face 

Teeth,  broad,  large,  unspaced 
Square,  protruding  chin  and  jaws 
Large  feet  and  hands 
Early  hair  growth  on  body 
Thick  skin,  large  sex  organs 
Aggressive,  precocious,  calculating,  self-contained 

Pituitary  inferior: 

Small,  sometimes  delicate  skeleton 
Rather  adipose,  weak  muscles 
Upper  jaw  prognathous 
Dry,  flabby  skin 
Small  hands  and  feet 
Abnormal  desire  for  sweets 
Subnormal  temperature,  blood  pressure  and  pulse 
Poor  control  of  lower  vegetative  functions 
Mentally  sluggish,  dull,  apathetic,  backward 
Loses  self-control  quickly,  cries  easily,  discouraged  promptly, 
psychic  stamina  insufficient 

The  pituitary  personality  in  childhood  produced  by  limitation 
of  the  size  of  the  gland,  because  its  bony  box  is  completely  or 
partially  closed,  presents  typical  hall-marks.  He  supplies  the  sec- 
ond and  third  offenders  in  the  juvenile  courts,  the  delinquents  and 
pathological  liars  of  childhood,  the  incorrigibles,  the  precocious 
hoboes,  mental  and  moral  deficients  and  defectives,  the  prey  of 
the  sentimental  complexes  of  elderly  virgins  and  helpful  futility 
all  around.  Not  utilitarianism  or  futilitarianism  is  needed,  but 
pituitarianism.  The  feeding  of  pituitary  gland  in  large  enough 
quantities  to  these  unfortunates  may  do  more  than  ten  charity 
organizations,  with  the  most  patrician  board  of  directors  complete. 


THE  TYPES  OF  PERSONALITY  215 

The  Thyroid  Personalities 

The  accessibility  of  the  thyroid  gland  in  the  neck,  the  ease  of 
surgical  approach,  the  definite  effects  following  its  removal,  and 
then  the  miraculous  marvels  of  the  feeding  of  thyroid  have 
rendered  it  the  centre  of  attack  by  the  largest  army  of  endocrine 
investigators.  As  a  result  we  know  more  about  the  thyroid  in 
childhood,  adolescence,  adult  life  and  old  age  than  about  the 
other  glands. 

In  childhood,  the  subthyroid  or  thyroid  deficient,  the  cretinoid 
type,  the  type  resembling  the  cretin,  is  fairly  common.  The 
peasant's  face,  with  the  broad  nose  and  the  tough  skin,  coarse 
straight  hair,  the  undergrowth,  physical  and  mental,  a  persistent 
babyishness  and  a  retardation  of  self-control  development,  make 
up  the  picture.  He  needs  an  excess  of  sleep,  sleeps  heavily,  needs 
sleep  during  the  day,  when  awakened  in  the  morning  still  feels 
tired,  and  rather  dull  and  restless,  dresses  slowly,  has  to  be  coaxed 
or  forced  to  dress,  gets  to  school  late  nearly  every  morning,  does 
badly  at  the  school,  reaction  time,  learning  time  and  remember- 
ing time  being  prolonged  as  compared  with  the  average,  and  is 
lazy  at  home  lessons.  He  perspires  little,  even  after  exertion,  yet 
fatigues  easily,  is  subject  to  frequent  colds,  adenoids,  tonsillitis, 
and  acquires  every  disease  of  childhood  that  happens  along. 

Adolescence,  the  coming  of  menstruation,  the  first  blooming  of 
youth  is  delayed  in  the  sub-thyroid.  The  secondary  sex  traits 
as  they  develop  tend  to  be  incomplete  and  to  mimic  those  of  the 
opposite  sex.  Yet  in  adolescence  too  there  may  be  a  sudden 
change  and  reversal  of  the  whole  process,  a  jump  from  the  sub- 
thyroid  to  the  hyperthyroid  state.  So  a  girl  who  has  been  dull 
and  lackadaisical,  with  no  complexion  and  every  prospect  of 
evolution  into  a  wall  flower,  may  be  transformed  into  a  bright- 
eyed  woman,  generally  nervous  and  restless,  high  colored,  and 
possessed  of  a  craving  for  continual  activity  and  excitement.  Skin, 
hair  and  teeth  become  of  the  thyroid  dominant  type.  The  heart 
palpitates  under  the  slightest  stimulus,  she  perspires  almost  an- 
noyingly,  heat  and  emotion  are  prostrating.  If  such  a  transfigura- 
tion does  not  occur,  the  effect  of  the  reconstructions  of  puberty 
is  to  create  a  person  with  about  the  following  characteristics. 

1.  Height  below  the  average 

2.  Tendency  to  obesity  (toward  midddle  age) 

3.  Complexion  sallow 

4.  Hair  dry — hair  line  high 


216     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

5.  Eyebrows  scanty,  either  as  a  whole  or  in  outer  half 

6.  Eyeballs  deep-set,  lack  lustre,  in  narrowed  slits 

7.  Teeth  irregular,  become  carious  early 

8.  Extremities  cold  and  bluish 

9.  Circulation  poor.    Subject  to  chilblains 

Intellectually,  these  people  vary  enormously,  depending  upon 
which  of  the  other  glands  will  enlarge  to  compensate  for  the  defi- 
ciency of  the  thyroid.  If  the  growth  of  the  skull  has  left  a  roomy 
sella  turcica  for  the  pituitary  to  grow  m,  the  intellect  may  be 
normal  or  even  superior,  though  energy  is  below  par.  If  this  is 
not  possible  and  the  adrenals  have  to  predominate,  a  lower,  more 
animal  and  less  self-controlled  type  of  mentality  is  produced. 

In  direct  contrast  to  the  sub-thyroid  types  is  he  who  originally 
was  hyperthyroid.  During  childhood  he  is  quite  healthy,  thin, 
but  striking  robust,  active,  energetic,  generally  f  air-complexioned 
with  nose  straight  and  high  bridged,  eyes  rather  "poppy," 
teeth  excellent,  regular,  firm,  white  with  a  pearly  translucent 
enamel.  These  children  are  always  on  the  go,  never  get  tired, 
require  little  sleep.  Seldom  will  one  of  the  classical  children's 
diseases  strike  them,  measles  perhaps,  but  no  other.  Adolescence 
for  them,  however,  is  more  apt  to  be  stormy  and  episodic,  adjust- 
ment to  the  new  world  of  people  and  things  is  much  more  difficult, 
wanderlust  is  acute.  All  an  expression  of  cells  keyed  up,  charged 
with  energy  that  must  flow  somewhere  or  explode. 

The  ruddy  live-wire,  recognized  everywhere  as  bubbling  with 
vitality,  the  life  of  any  group,  the  magnetic  personality  may, 
however,  be  shocked  by  some  seismic  event  like  the  death  of  a 
father  or  mother,  or  the  ruin  of  some  cherished  ambition.  A 
break  in  the  balance  of  the  other  glands  follows  quickly  and 
disablement  and  invalidism,  which  may  cure  itself  after  some 
years,  remain  stationary,  or  descend  to  the  worst  forms  of  thyroid 
deficiency. 

During  maturity,  the  type  are  characterized  usually  by  a  lean 
body,  or  tendency  rapidly  to  become  thin  under  stress.  They  have 
clean  cut  features  and  thick  hair,  often  wavy  or  curly,  thick  long 
eyebrows,  large,  frank,  brilliant,  keen  eyes,  regular  and  well 
developed  teeth  and  mouth.  Sexually  they  are  well  differentiated 
and  susceptible.  Noticeable  emotivity,  a  rapidity  of  perception 
and  volition,  impulsiveness,  and  a  tendency  to  explosive  crises 
of  expression  are  the  distinctive  psychic  traits.  A  restless,  inex- 
haustible energy  makes  them  perpetual  doers  and  workers,  who 
get  up  early  in  the  morning,  flit  about  all  day,  retire  late,  and 


THE  TYPES  OF  PERSONALITY  217 

frequently  suffer  from  insomnia,  planning  in  bed  what  they  are 
to  do  next  day. 

Certain  types  of  thyroid  excess  associated  with  the  thymus  do- 
minant next  to  be  described  are  peculiarly  susceptible  to  emo- 
tional instability.  They  are  subject  to  brain  storms,  outbreaks 
of  furious  rage,  sometimes  associated  with  a  state  of  semi-con- 
sciousness. To  emphasize  the  analogy  to  epilepsy,  their  attacks 
have  been  called  psycholepsy.  Among  the  Italians  especially  they 
were  watched  and  reported  during  the  War,  when  the  explosive 
fits  were  seen  to  take  the  form  of  irresponsible  acts  of  insubordi- 
nation or  violence. 

The  Thymo-Centric  Personalities 

During  the  first  period  of  childhood,  up  to  five,  six  or  seven,  or 
more  accurately,  up  to  the  point  at  which  the  permanent  teeth 
begin  to  appear,  every  child  may  be  said  to  be  a  thymus-domi- 
ated  organism,  because  the  thymus,  holding  the  other  endocrines 
in  check,  controls  its  life.  That  is  why  up  to  the  third  and  fourth 
years  at  any  rate,  most  children  seem  alike.  Closer  observation, 
however,  reveals  points  of  differentiation  and  signs  of  the  coming 
potencies  of  the  other  hormones.  During  the  second  period, 
up  to  puberty,  these  marks  of  the  deeper  underlying  forces  of 
the  personality  make  themselves  more  and  more  felt.  The  thy- 
mus, like  a  brake  that  is  becoming  worn  out,  continues  to  function 
in  a  progressively  weaker  fashion.  Until  with  the  arrival  of  the 
gonadal  (ovaries'  or  testes')  internal  secretion,  its  influence  is 
wiped  out. 

There  is  a  definite  degree  of  thymus  activity  during  everyone's 
childhood,  unless  by  its  premature  involution,  precocity  displaces 
juvenility.  Yet  even  during  childhood,  there  are  certain  indivi- 
duals with  excessive  thymus  action,  foreshadowing  a  continued 
thymus  predominance  throughout  life.  The  "angel  child"  is  the 
type:  regularly  proportioned  and  perfectly  made,  like  a  fine  piece 
of  sculpture,  with  delicately  chiselled  features,  transparent  skin 
changing  color  easily,  long  silky  hair,  with  an  exceptional  grace 
of  movement  and  an  alertness  of  mind.  They  seem  the  embodi- 
ment of  beauty,  but  somehow  unfit  for  the  coarse  conflicts  of  life. 
In  English  literature  several  characters  are  recognizable  as  por- 
traits of  the  type,  notably  Paul  Dombey,  whose  nurse  recognized 
that  he  was  not  for  this  world.  They  may  look  the  picture  of 
health,  but  they  are  more  liable  than  any  other  children  to  be 


218      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

eliminated  by  tuberculosis,  meningitis  or  even  one  of  the  common 
diseases  of  childhood. 

It  is  after  puberty,  when  the  thymus  should  shrink  and  pass 
out  of  the  endocrine  concert  as  a  power,  that  the  more  complex 
reactions  of  personality  emerge  when  the  thymus  persists  and 
refuses  to  or  cannot  retire.  The  persistent  thymus  always  then 
throws  its  shadow  over  the  entire  personality.  To  what  extent 
that  shadow  spreads  depends  upon  the  strength  of  the  other 
glands  of  internal  secretion,  their  ability  to  compensate  or  to  stay 
inhibited.  Whether  or  not  the  pituitary  will  be  able  to  enlarge 
in  its  bony  cradle  seems  to  be  the  most  important  factor  deter- 
mining these  variations.  If  there  is  space  for  it  to  grow,  at  any 
rate  normally,  the  individual  may  pass  for  normal,  although 
he  will  have  difficulties  throughout  life  he  may  never  under- 
stand, particularly  in  sexual  directions.  If  the  pituitary  is  limited 
partially  or  completely,  the  thymus  predominance  is  more 
prominent  and  fixed,  and  the  abnormalities  become  obvious,  both 
of  person  and  conduct. 

The  anatomic  architecture  of  the  latter  thymo-centric  person- 
ality is  fairly  typical.  The  reversion  in  type  of  the  reproductive 
organs,  the  slender  waist,  the  gracefully  formed  body,  the  rounded 
limbs,  the  long  chest  and  the  feminine  pelvis  strike  one  at  the  first 
glance.  The  texture  of  the  skin  is  smooth  as  a  baby's,  and  some- 
times velvety  to  the  touch.  Its  color  may  be  an  opaque  white, 
or  faintly  creamy,  or  there  may  be  an  effect  of  a  filmy  sheen  over 
a  florid  complexion.  Little  or  no  hair  on  the  face  contributes 
to  the  general  feminine  aspect  in  the  more  extreme  types.  They 
are  often  double  jointed  somewhere,  flat  footed,  knock-kneed. 

In  women,  the  external  manifestations  of  a  thymo-centric  per- 
sonality may  be  limited  to  thinness  and  delicacy  of  the  skin, 
narrow  waist,  rather  poorly  developed  breasts,  arched  thighs  and 
scanty  hair,  with  scanty  and  delayed  menstruation.  Or  there 
may  be  obesity,  with  juvenility,  if  there  is  a  repression  of  the 
pituitary  secretion  for  one  reason  or  other. 

In  their  reactions  to  the  problems,  physical  and  psychic,  of 
everyday  life,  the  thymo-centrics  are  distinctly  at  a  disadvantage. 
In  the  first  place,  muscular  strain,  stress  or  shock  is  dangerous 
to  them  because  they  have  a  small  heart,  and  remarkably  fragile 
blood  vessels,  which  renders  their  circulation  incapable  of  re- 
sponding to  an  emergency,  or  at  least  definitely  handicapped.  In 
infancy,  they  may  die  suddenly  because  of  this,  either  for  no 


THE  TYPES  OF  PERSONALITY  219 

ascertainable  cause  at  all,  or  because  of  some  slight  excitement 
like  that  attending  some  slight  operation,  a  fall,  or  a  mild  illness. 
During  the  run-about  epoch  they  are  unable  to  cope  with  the 
necessities  of  an  active  child's  existence  in  playing  with  other 
children.  Puberty  and  adolescence  are  specially  perilous  to  them 
for  they  may  endeavour  to  compensate  for  an  inner  feeling  of 
physical  inferiority  by  going  in  strenuously  for  athletics  and 
sports,  and  so  risking  a  sudden  hemorrhage  in  the  brain,  produc- 
ible by  the  tearing  of  a  blood  vessel,  as  if  constructed  of  defec- 
tive rubber.  Reports  published  in  the  newspapers  from  time  to 
time  of  children  or  young  men  instantly  killed  by  a  tap  on  the 
jaw  in  a  boxing  contest,  or  some  other  trivial  injuries  are  doubt- 
less samples  of  such  reactions  in  thymo-centric  people. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  conduct  aberrations  of  the  thymo- 
centric  personality  during  adult  life,  the  following  extracts  from 
a  newspaper  report  of  a  suicide  are  worth  quoting. 

"An  autopsy  made  yesterday  by  Dr.  Benjamin  Schwartz,  first 
assistant  to  Dr.  Charles  Norris,  Chief  Medical  Examiner,  re- 
moved any  mystery  that  surrounded  the  death  on  Saturday 
night  by  pistol  bullets  of  Dr.  Jose  A.  Arenas  and  the  wounding 
of  'Miss  Ruth  Jackson'  and  Ignatio  Marti. 

"Dr.  Schwartz  said  that  his  post-mortem  examination  had  con- 
vinced him  beyond  doubt  that  the  dead  physician-dentist  had 
killed  himself  after  he  had  tried  to  take  the  life  of  the  young 
woman  with  whom  he  had  lived  and  of  the  youth  who  was  his 
successful  rival. 

"  'Besides  that/  Dr.  Schwartz  said,  'my  report  to  the  police  will 
include  a  statement  from  the  young  woman  to  me  that  she  always 
had  understood  that  Dr.  Arenas  had  killed  some  one  in  Havana, 
Cuba,  before  he  came  to  New  York. 

"  'The  autopsy  left  no  doubt  that  Dr.  Arenas  was  a  case  of 
status  lymphaticus  (thymus-centered  personality).  I  made  a 
most  complete  report  because  of  the  scientific  value  of  the  au- 
topsy. 

"  'This  confirmed  my  first  deductions  after  seeing  the  body  on 
Saturday  night  in  the  doctor's  furnished  room  with  alcove  bed- 
room adjoining.  You  will  remember  that  as  soon  as  I  had  seen 
him  I  revealed  that  he  was  wearing  corsets. 

"  'These  cases  of  status  lymphaticus  are  intensely  interesting. 
In  them  the  blood  vessels  are  very  small,  and  the  lymphatic 
element  is  greatly  in  excess.    They  die  suddenly,  from  ruptures 


220      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

of  blood  vessels.  Many  of  them  are  degenerate.  Most  of  them 
are  criminals.  All  of  them  are  liable  to  commit  crimes  of  passion. 
Among  them  are  found  a  large  percentage  of  drug  addicts. 

"  'Miss  Jackson,  in  the  hospital,  confirmed  my  scientific  theory 
that  the  dead  man  was  not  normal.  She  was  perfectly  frank  in 
her  statement.  She  said  she  had  left  her  husband,  Elmer  Schultz, 
an  automobile  salesman  in  Toledo,  several  months  ago  and  had 
come  to  New  York.  She  said  she  had  lived  with  the  doctor  for 
some  time. 

"  'About  ten  days  ago  she  left  him  to  live  with  Marti,  a  healthy, 
normal  lad.  Before  she  went  from  the  doctor's  room  she  destroyed 
those  colored  collars  that  were  found  beside  the  body.  She  cut 
them  with  scissors.  But  that  was  after,  so  she  states,  the  doctor 
had  destroyed  stockings  of  hers  by  cutting  them. 

"  'She  told  me  in  the  hospital  today,  and  with  every  appearance 
of  truth,  that  she  had  met  Arenas  in  the  subway  at  the  station 
on  Seventy-second  Street  and  Broadway  on  Friday  night  and 
that  she  had  asked  him  when  she  could  come  and  get  her  clothes. 
He  said,  according  to  her  story : 

"  'Come  to  the  house  tomorrow  afternoon — but  come  with 
Marti.' 

"  'She  said  that  she  and  Marti  went  there  according  to  this 
invitation:  that  first  the  doctor  showed  her  the  cut  collars  and 
told  her  that  she  would  get  her  clothes  back  in  perfect  condition, 
and  that  the  next  thing  she  knew  she  had  been  shot.  She  couldn't 
remember  much  after  that. 

"  'I  believe  that  both  she  and  Marti  have  told  a  perfectly 
straightforward  story  and  the  autopsy  is  proof  of  it. 

"  'There  were  six  bullets  in  the  doctor's  pistol  to  be  accounted 
for.  One,  in  an  undischarged  cartridge,  still  was  in  the  weapon. 
That  leaves  five.  One  struck  "Miss  Jackson"  in  the  right  chest 
squarely  in  front,  and  penetrated  the  flesh  about  one  inch.  If 
there  had  been  any  power  at  all  behind  the  missile  it  would  have 
gone  right  through,  pierced  a  lung,  caused  a  hemorrhage,  and  the 
chances  are  that  "Miss  Jackson"  would  have  died.  That  leaves 
four  bullets. 

"  'One  more  struck  Marti  in  the  left  upper  chest.  It  passed 
through  the  pocket  there,  and  the  skirt,  grazed  the  skin,  and  then 
bounced  over  to  the  right  hand  side  in  front.  It  was  a  most 
amazing  case  of  a  bounding  bullet.  I  was  particularly  careful 
about  examining  its  course  because  at  first  I  was  suspicious  of 
the  stories  that  were  told  by  Marti  and  "Miss  Jackson."  Now  I 
know  they  are  true. 


THE  TYPES  OF  PERSONALITY  221 

"  'But  anyone  might  have  been  puzzled  by  the  queer  antics  of 
the  missiles  from  the  pistol  of  South  American  manufacture  that 
the  doctor  used.  If  it  had  had  any  penetrating  power — or  rather 
if  the  bullets  that  it  sent  out,  had  any  real  kick  behind  them — 
the  chances  are  that  both  "Miss  Jackson"  and  Marti  would  be 
dead  now. 

"  'Two  bullets,  it  will  be  remembered,  entered  the  doctor's  left 
chest,  quite  close  together.  Well,  one  nicked  the  heart  and  lodged 
between  the  lung  and  the  heart.  It  didn't  cause  any  more 
damage  than  a  mosquito  bite. 

"  'The  second  bullet  went  through  the  soft  flesh  of  the  chest,  but 
it  struck  a  rib  and  bounded  back  out  again.  That  bullet  was 
picked  up  beside  the  body. 

"  'After  these  vain  attempts  to  send  a  bullet  through  his  body 
to  a  fatal  spot,  the  doctor  apparently  shifted  the  weapon  to  his 
right  temple  and  pulled  the  trigger  for  the  fifth  time.  Then  the 
fifth  bullet,  driven  likewise  by  a  very  weak  charge  of  powder, 
pierced  the  skull  at  a  point  where  it  was  thin  and  tore  into  his 
brain.  Its  lack  of  power,  however,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  I 
found  it  this  morning  in  the  brain  tissue. 

"  'In  all  my  experience  I  have  never  seen  anything  so  queer.  It 
sounds  almost  like  a  dream — a  man  trying  to  kill  with  a  pistol 
that  shoots  bullets  that  either  stop  after  striking  soft  flesh  or 
bound  out  of  the  body  into  which  they  are  fired.  But  it  is  true; 
I  have  had  all  of  the  bullets  in  my  hand. 

"  'They  are  all  accounted  for.  They  are  all  of  the  same  sort. 
There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  they  are  all  from  the  same 
weapon,  an  instrument  without  manufacturer's  name,  and  of  a 
design  that  the  police  say  is  unfamiliar  to  them. 

"  'The  dead  doctor  was  a  distinct  type,  and  his  tragic  end  was 
one  that  should  not  surprise  anyone  who  has  any  knowledge  of 
such  cases.  The  courtroom  was  thronged  with  friends  of  the  dead 
physician-dentist,  who  not  only  is  reported  to  be  of  a  wealthy 
family  of  Bogota,  Colombia,  but  generally  is  credited  with  many 
charitable  works  in  the  uptown  Spanish  colony  here.'  " 

The  distinct  type  to  which  the  first  assistant  to  the  chief 
medical  examiner  of  the  city  referred  is  the  thymo-centric  person- 
ality (status  lymphaticus  is  another  technical  name  for  it),  we 
have  been  considering.  The  persistence  of  the  thymus  after 
adolescence  makes  for  an  arrest  of  masculinization  or  feminiza- 
tion, the  end-point  arrived  at  by  the  processes  of  puberty.  That 
is,  a  partial  castration  takes  place.  Now,  as  the  experiments 
of  Steinach  upon  the  transplantation  of  ovaries  into  males  de- 


222     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

prived  of  their  testes  and  of  testes  into  females  deprived  of  their 
ovaries  have  demonstrated,  the  removal  of  the  interstitial  cells 
of  one  sex  assists  enormously  in  arousing  the  opposite  sex  traits 
that  have  been  latent,  homosexuality.  In  a  thymo-centric,  ten- 
dencies to  homosexuality  and  masochism  appear.  And  so  all  the 
remarkable  after-effects  of  those  processes  that  the  Freudians 
have  so  lovingly  traced:  the  father  complex  in  men,  the  inferiority 
complex,  and  the  feminoid  complex  in  general. 

The  feminoid  complex  introduces  again  the  character  of  the 
functional  hermaphrodite,  the  mixed  male-female.  The  sex  index 
will  certainly  come  in  time  as  a  measurement  of  sexuality.  But 
until  then  some  more  available  classification  of  sex  tendency  is 
necessary.  Including  sex  intergrades,  one  may  divide  sex  types 
into  six  classes:  male,  mate-female,  male- female,  female,  female- 
male,  and  female-mate.  The  sex  intergrades,  the  four  hyphenated 
classes,  nearly  all  have  some  degree  of  persistent  thymus.  If  its 
influence  is  partial,  the  emphasis  is  before  the  hyphen,  upon  the 
ostensible.  If  its  influence  is  unchecked,  the  emphasis  is  after 
the  hyphen  upon  the  apparently  latent  sex.  The  sex  difficulties 
produced  in  these  people  by  the  conflict  between  their  conscious 
sex  and  their  sub-conscious  sex,  the  sex  duel  in  the  same  mind, 
Siamese  twins  pulling  in  diametrically  opposite  directions,  are 
comprehensible  only  from  the  viewpoint  of  the  internal  secre- 
tions. 

Homosexuality,  in  one  form  or  another,  frank  or  concealed, 
haunts  the  thymo-centric  and  spoils  his  life.  The  persistent  thy- 
mus, like  a  vindictive  Electra,  stalks  the  footsteps  of  its  victim, 
its  possessor.  He  wishes  to  live,  according  to  society's  remorse- 
lessly rigid  expectations,  for  virility  and  happiness.  But  his  thy- 
mus condition  forces  him  also  to  live  for  femininity  and  misery. 
That  homosexuality  is  not  purely  a  psychic  matter,  of  complexes 
and  introversion,  as  the  newest  psychology  would  have  us  be- 
lieve, has  been  proved  by  observations  of  its  development  in 
animals  with  internal  secretion  disturbances,  acquired  or  experi- 
mental. Thus  it  has  been  recorded  that  a  male  dog  showed  a 
large  goitrous  swelling  of  the  thyroid  in  the  neck,  with  a  rapid 
heart,  staring  eyes,  the  loss  of  flesh  and  fat  and  the  nervousness  of 
a  hyperthyroid  condition.  Therewith  he  became  an  absolute 
homosexual.  Observations  on  the  primates  along  the  same  lines 
have  been  made.  In  goitrous  hyperthyroids  thymus  persistence 
is  common. 

What  complicates  his  sex  difficulties,  and  makes  social  adjust- 


THE  TYPES  OF  PERSONALITY  223 

ment  almost  impossible  or  completely  impossible,  is  that  his 
pituitary  frequently  cannot  react  to  assist  him.  Often,  as  empha- 
sized, it  is  bound  in  by  bone  on  all  sides  and  neither  ante-pituitary 
nor  post-pituitary  can  adequately  secrete  for  his  needs.  So  social 
instinct  and  the  capacity  for  inhibition,  the  ability  to  control 
himself  conceptually  and  somatically,  are  poor.  As  a  child  it  is 
difficult  to  train  him  along  the  lines  of  the  elementary  habits  and 
customs.  He  is  into  late  childhood  a  bed-wetter,  and  steals  and 
lies  quasi-unconsciously. 

His  mother  realizes  soon  that  he  cannot  be  made  to  acquire  a 
sense  of  responsibility  either  for  himself  or  for  others.  She 
becomes  afraid  to  let  him  go  into  the  street  because  of  his 
inability  to  take  care  of  himself,  to  acquire  the  right  attitude 
toward  street  cars,  autos,  strangers,  in  short,  danger.  She  dreads 
to  take  him  to  places  because  no  sooner  would  they  be  out  of 
them,  than  she  would  discover  that  he  had  taken  something  that 
did  not  belong  to  him,  quite  as  a  matter  of  course.  He  will 
fabricate  stories  with  no  motive,  fabricate  them  out  of  whole 
cloth  for  the  pure  fun  of  it.  In  a  word,  moral  irresponsibility 
is  the  keynote  of  the  volitional  traits  of  the  thymo-centric  per- 
sonality from  childhood  up. 

With  so  much  against  them,  physical  inferiorities,  mental  de- 
fects, moral  lacks  of  every  sort,  it  is  little  wonder  that  the  thymo- 
centrics  die  young.  Infections  hit  them  badly.  The  cases  of  flu 
that  went  off  in  twenty-four  hours  belonged  to  the  type.  Ful- 
minant meningitis,  pneumonia,  diphtheria,  scarlet  fever,  the 
varieties  that  are  supposed  to  kill  in  twenty-four  to  forty-eight 
hours  because  of  the  terrible  virulence  of  the  attacking  microbe, 
are  probably  so  malignant  only  because  the  organism  attacked 
is  a  thymus  subject. 

In  the  alcohol  and  drug  habitue  wards  of  hospitals  as  well  as  in 
medicolegal  cases  of  degenerates,  gunmen  and  other  criminals, 
the  characteristic  conformation  and  diagnostic  stigmata  of  the 
thymo-centric  are  often  encountered.  Life  treats  them  badly. 
Misunderstood  and  misjudged,  they  are  the  hopeless  misfits  of 
society.  If  the  pituitary  and  the  thyroid  can  enlarge  to  com- 
pensate for  their  defects,  they  may  become  the  queer  brilliants, 
the  eccentric  geniuses  of  the  arts  and  sciences.  Should  they  not, 
mental  deficiency  and  delinquency  are  their  portion.  Epilepsy, 
then,  is  sometimes  their  mode  of  escape  from  the  terrors  of  an 
utterly  foreign  world.  Should  they  survive  all  other  hazards, 
suicide  may  still  be  their  most  frequent  fate.    A  study  of  122 


224      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

cases  of  suicide  by  one  observer  showed  that  the  status  lympha- 
ticus  was  practically  constant  and  often  pronounced. 

Certain  of  them,  after  a  stormy  life  in  the  twenties,  become 
adapted  to  their  surroundings  in  the  thirties  because  the  pituitary 
gradually  emerges  and  becomes  dominant  in  their  personalities. 
They  are  then  recessive  thymocentrics.  An  increase  in  size,  a 
broadening,  together  with  a  greater  mental  tranquillity  and 
stability,  accompany  the  adaptation.  Historically,  the  thymo- 
centrics who  combined  brilliancy  and  instability  played  a  great 
part  as  some  of  the  famous  adventurers  and  restless  experimen- 
talists. 

The  Sex  Gland  Centered  or  Gonado-Centric  Personalities 

(The  Eunuchoid  Personality) 

Among  the  individuals  whose  personality  is  dominated  by  their 
sex  glands  the  physiognomy,  physique  and  life  reactions  are  so 
distinctive  that  no  better  examples  exist  of  our  main  thesis:  that 
the  whole  life  of  man  is  controlled  primarily  by  his  internal 
secretions.  These  gonado-centric  types  are  not  all  necessarily 
sex  gland  deficient,  as  the  term  eunuchoid  implies.  They  may  be 
rather  gonad  unstable  with  a  corresponding  instability  of  the 
entire  endocrine  system. 

About  the  face  of  the  eunuchoid  the  striking  feature  is  the 
incomplete,  irregular,  or  absent  hair  development.  Below  thirty 
it  is  chubby  and  ruddy,  and  rather  childish  in  its  texture;  after 
thirty,  there  is  an  effect  of  premature  senility:  the  skin  is  yellow- 
ish, leathery,  and  wrinkled  as  the  faces  of  old  women  are 
wrinkled:  the  upper  lip  is  traversed  by  vertical  wrinkles,  and 
wrinkles  come  around  corners  of  the  mouth.  The  expression  is 
juvenile,  effeminate  or  plaintive. 

Invariably  the  voice  is  higher  pitched  than  the  usual  masculine 
tones.  It  may  be  gentle  and  subdued,  like  a  genteel  female's,  or 
strident  and  rasping.  Occasionally  it  is  a  pleasant  high  tenor. 
The  Adam's  apple,  poetic  popular  name  for  the  thyroid  cartilage, 
is  never  prominent,  because  it  is  not  ossified,  as  it  should  be  in 
the  normal  male. 

Tall  and  slender,  or  generally  undersized,  the  muscles  are  soft 
and  flabby  as  a  woman's.  The  hands  and  feet  are  small  and 
gracile  typically.  Viewed  in  profile,  the  lines  of  the  body  are 
feminine.    The  breasts  may  reach  almost  the  size  of  the  female's 


THE  TYPES  OF  PERSONALITY  225 

and  there  may  be  a  well-marked  area  of  pigmentation  around  the 
nipple.  The  hair  growth  under  the  shoulders  and  on  the  lower 
abdomen  tends  to  be  scanty  and  to  approximate  the  opposite 
sex  in  quality  and  distribution,  as  do  the  reproductive  organs 
themselves. 

These  traits  of  physiognomy  and  physique  indicate  functional 
hermaphroditism  in  the  underlying  feminoid  constitution.  The 
feminoid  constitution  appears  again  in  the  supposedly  masculine. 
The  feminoid  constitution  should  not  be  confused  with  the  infanti- 
loid  constitution.  The  former,  the  gonado-centric  personality,  is 
a  digression  of  growth,  a  deviated  evolution  of  the  individual 
because  of  the  conflicting  forces,  some  masculine  and  some  femi- 
nine, in  his  make-up.  The  infantiloid  constitution  is  one  of 
arrested  development,  and  may  center  around  the  arrested  func- 
tion in  childhood  or  adolescence  of  any  one  or  a  number  of 
endocrine  glands.  Yet  the  two  may  resemble  one  another  pretty 
closely,  at  times.  A  cretin  imitates  the  extreme  grade  of  infanti- 
loid constitution.  The  infantiloid  is  a  sort  of  enlarged  and 
lengthened  child.  The  feminoid  is  ostensibly  a  man,  with  a 
good  deal  of  woman  in  him.  The  infantiloid  is  a  quite  general 
type,  but  of  course  when  typical  is  a  freak,  recognized  and 
treated  as  such.  How  far  the  eunuchoid  may  deviate  from  the 
normal  is  suggested  by  the  following  description  of  one. 

"Face  rounded,  moon-like,  chubby,  devoid  of  hair.  Eyes 
puffed.  Lips  protruding  and  fleshy.  Cheeks  round  and  thick. 
Nose  little  developed.  Skin  thick  and  of  clear  color.  Dispropor- 
tion between  the  size  of  head  and  body.  Hair  of  scalp  fine.  Brows 
and  lashes  scarce,  trunk  elongated  and  cylindrical.  Limbs  thick 
and  plump,  tapering  from  the  root  to  the  extremities.  Good  fat 
layers  over  the  entire  body.  Reproductive  organs  those  of  a 
little  boy.  Infantile  mental  state:  light-heartedness,  naivete, 
timidity,  easily  evoked  tears  and  laughter,  promptly  aroused 
but  fugitive  wrath:  excessive  tenderness,  but  unreasonable  dis- 
likes." 

An  almost  wholly  mental  infantiloid  state  or  one  purely 
physical  may  occur.  Certain  rather  large  Tom  Thumbs  belong 
to  the  group.  In  everyday  life  we  see  doll  creatures,  overgrown 
children,  on  every  hand.  Mental  measurements  of  any  large 
group  of  population  reveal  a  remarkable  percentage  of  it  as 
below  the  mental  age  of  12.  Juvenile  traits  and  juvenile  mind, 
separate  or  combined,  should  always  suggest  the  possibility  of  the 
infantiloid  constitution  of  one  type  of  thymocentric  also. 


226     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

The  eunuchoid  or  feminoid  personality  is  also  found  often 
among  artists.  One  must  carefully  distinguish  the  two  because 
the  ensemble  of  characteristics  of  the  one  may  easily  stimulate 
the  other.  Yet  fundamentally  they  are  as  far  apart  as  the  poles. 
The  infantiloid  type  never  rises  above  the  sub-normal,  which  is  its 
habitat,  while  the  feminoid  type  (or  masculinoid,  in  woman) 
often  produces  an  abnormal  personality  which  rises  above  the 
normal.  The  infantiloids  become  the  slaves  and  the  weaklings 
of  society,  the  Mark  Tapleys,  and  the  Tom  Pinches,  while  the 
eunuchoids  have  created  splendid  literature  and  immortal  music. 

The  life  reactions,  and  especially  the  sex  reactions  of  the 
gonado-centric,  are  as  complex  and  difficult  as  those  of  the 
thymo-centric.  Straightforward  homosexuality  and  the  eunuch- 
oid constitution  have  always  been  intimate.  The  homosexuality 
of  the  thymo-centric  is  more  subtle  and  disguised,  often  buried 
under  the  stronger  masculine  component  of  the  personality. 

Homosexuality  as  a  cult  has  appeared  correlated  with  the 
production  of  the  functional  hermaphrodite  by  artificially  creat- 
ing the  eunuchoid  type  of  constitution.  Among  the  Aztecs,  homo- 
sexuals were  produced  in  quantity  for  religious  purposes  by  a 
deliberate  fostering  of  the  eunuchoid  constitution.  They  called 
them  the  Mujerados.  Their  method  consisted  in  making  a 
healthy  man  ride  horseback  constantly,  until  an  irritable  weak- 
ness of  the  reproductive  organs  ensued,  and  a  paralytic  im- 
potence followed.  The  exhausted  testes  would  then  atrophy, 
and  the  voice  ring  falsetto,  muscular  tone  and  energy  diminish, 
inclinations  and  habits  become  feminine.  The  Mujerado  lost  his 
position  in  society  as  a  man,  assumed  female  clothing,  manners 
and  customs,  and  to  all  intents  and  purposes  was  treated  as  a 
woman.  Their  large  breasts  were  said  to  be  capable  of  lactation. 
Their  only  reward  was  the  high  honor  paid  them  as  religious 
consecrates. 

Among  the  Phoenicians  there  was  a  similar  sect,  devoted  to 
the  worship  of  Astarte.  Known  as  the  Galli,  they  were  men  who 
had  transformed  themselves  into  the  closest  possible  resemblance 
to  women.  At  all  times  they  were  prepared  to  engage  with 
members  of  either  sex  in  sexual  relations  of  the  most  depraved 
kind.  They  lived  in  idleness  as  prostitutes,  cultivating  and 
extending  their  skill  in  sex  perversions  as  specialists.  Their  in- 
itiation into  their  professional  careers  was  a  part  of  a  religious 
ritual.  During  the  revels  of  great  festivals,  apprentices  to  the 
trade,  wrought  up  by  certain  traditional  songs  and  music,  would 


THE  TYPES  OF  PERSONALITY  227 

be  hypnotised  into  a  frenzy,  run  amuck,  throw  off  every  garment, 
and,  snatching  up  swords,  deliberately  placed  in  convenient  spots, 
castrate  themselves  at  one  blow.  In  a  wilder  hysteria,  screaming 
loudly,  the  self-made  eunuchs  would  then  run  through  the  streets 
holding  the  severed  organs  high  above  their  heads.  At  last, 
faint  through  loss  of  blood,  they  brought  their  madness  to  its 
climax  by  hurling  the  organs  in  their  hands  into  the  nearest 
houses,  so  forcing  the  owners  to  take  them  in,  and  provide  them 
with  female  wearing  apparel,  and  the  other  feminine  accoutre- 
ments of  war.  Henceforth,  this  manner  of  dress  was  not  to  be 
changed.  The  physical  changes  followed.  The  hair  of  the  face 
was  lost,  the  breasts  enlarged,  the  voice  became  high-pitched, 
and  the  other  type-characters  of  the  eunuchoid  complex  appeared. 

These  constitutions  thus  may  be  either  congenital  or  acquired. 
Individuals  apparently  normal  during  childhood  and  adolescence 
may  be  transformed.  Injuries  to  the  reproductive  glands,  some- 
times the  slightest  bruises,  may  lead  to  atrophy,  and  a  change 
of  personality  follows  in  less  than  six  weeks.  Mumps  may  achieve 
the  same  results  because  of  the  inflammation  of  the  gonads  that 
may  accompany  or  follow  it. 

Whole  family  and  races  may  show  some  of  the  signs  of  the 
eunuchoid  constitution  for  generations.  According  to  Darwin 
(Descent  of  Man)  "the  development  of  the  beard  and  the  hairi- 
ness of  the  body  differ  remarkably  in  the  men  of  distinct  races, 
and  even  in  different  tribes,  and  families  of  the  same  race.  On 
the  European-Asiatic  continent,  beards  prevail,  until  we  pass 
beyond  India,  although  with  the  natives  of  Ceylon  they  are  often 
absent.  .  .  .  Eastward  of  India  beards  disappear,  as  with  the 
Siamese,  Kalmuks,  Malays,  Chinese,  and  Japanese.  Through- 
out the  great  American  continent  the  men  may  be  said  to  be 
beardless:  but  in  almost  all  tribes  a  few  short  hairs  are  apt  to 
appear  on  the  face,  especially  in  old  age.  .  .  ."  Hair  being  an 
adrenal  cortex  trait,  it  is  to  be  inferred  that  hairless  families 
and  races  are  more  eunuchoid,  and  possess  less  of  the  adrenal 
cortex  secretion  than  the  more  hairy. 

Whatever  the  exceptions — and  there  have  been  eunuch  generals 
in  history — Marces,  Chancellor  of  Justinian,  who  beat  the  Goths 
at  Nocera,  and  Ali  the  Gallant  who  commanded  the  Turkish 
Army  after  the  invasion  of  Hungary  in  185(3 — the  eunuchoid 
generally  runs  to  type  in  his  mentality  and  his  sexuality.  He  is 
an  introvert,  his  personality  is  shut  in,  he  isolates  himself  from 
the  world. 


228     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

The  lower  eunuchoids  exhibit  a  curiously  child-like  personality. 
Naively  confiding,  communicating  to  all  comers  all  their  joys 
and  sorrows,  they  ask  diffidently  for  confirmation  of  their  state- 
ments, and  they  pass  quickly  from  tears  to  laughter.  About 
sexual  matters  they  are  extremely  timid.  A  moral  innocence 
pervades  their  speech  and  conduct.  Usually  they  have  no  true 
conception  of  crimes  of  jealousy  or  passion.  The  occupations 
they  go  in  for  are  those  without  responsibility  away  from  crowds 
or  observation,  such  as  ship  cooks,  stewards,  and  so  on.  They 
marry  to  find  a  home,  without  the  object  of  establishing  sexual 
relations.  When  they  are  asked  whether  they  think  their  wives 
will  be  pleased  to  look  at  the  matter  in  the  same  light,  and  be 
contented  to  live  with  a  man  upon  such  conditions,  they  are 
puzzled  or  perplexed,  as  if  they  had  never  thought  seriously  about 
the  matter  before.  Their  simplicity  has  even  extended  to  propos- 
ing to  their  wives  to  seek  gratification  from  some  other  man. 
Naturally,  such  an  arrangement  often  proves  unsatisfactory,  and 
desertion  follows. 

Concerning  the  children  sometimes  the  offspring  of  these 
unions,  scepticism  as  to  the  identity  of  the  father  is  decidedly 
permissible.  Still  in  some  cases  the  best  of  evidence  exists  that 
fertility  occurs.  The  vitality  of  the  children  then  is  subnormal 
and  the  mortality  rate  high.  The  eunuchoid  tendency  is  trans- 
mitted. Variations  and  transitions  of  every  kind  are  found 
among  the  undersexed  eunuchoid  personalities,  depending  upon 
the  quality  and  degree  of  the  secretions  lacking. 

When  there  is  an  excess  of  these  sex  secretions,  a  turbulent, 
tempestuous,  sexually  sensitive  temperament,  that  may  go  on  to 
satyriasis  or  nymphomania,  is  created.  It  has  been  shown  that 
doves  can  be  rendered  overfeminine  in  their  behaviour  and  char- 
acteristics by  injections  of  ovarian  material.  Oversexed  types  of 
personality  therefore  may  exist  as  well  as  undersexed. 

Combinations  and  Permutations 

The  types  of  personality  sketched — the  thyrocentric,  the 
pituitocentric,  the  adrenocentric,  the  thymocentric,  the  gonado- 
centric — are  really  prototypes,  the  great  kingdoms  of  personality, 
to  which  individuals  can  be  assigned,  by  hall  marks  which 
facilitate  their  classification.  They  may  also  be  described  as  the 
pure  endocrine  types,  which  include  a  minority  of  a  population. 
But  the  majority  consist  of  dominant  mixtures,  hyphenates,  groups 


THE  TYPES  OF  PERSONALITY  229 

which  are  the  species  and  varieties  of  the  greater  classes.  Combi- 
nations and  variations  of  control  among  the  adrenals  and  thy- 
roid, pituitary  or  thymus,  and  so  on,  occur,  with  effects  that  are 
sometimes  additive,  reinforcing  a  particular  trait  of  the  person, 
and  at  others  conflicting,  and  neutralizing.  Quantitative  varia- 
tions of  the  same  secretion  may  occur  periodically  in  the  same 
individual,  which  explains  the  multiplicity  and  complexity,  the 
inconsistency  and  contradictions  of  conduct  in  a  man  or  woman 
at  the  different  episodes  and  crises  of  life,  to  a  certain  extent. 

There  should  be  a  stable  balance  between  the  various  endo- 
crines,  the  stability  expressing  itself  in  what  we  are  pleased  to 
call  the  normal.  There  should  also  be  a  balance  between  the 
antagonistic  elements  in  the  same  gland;  for  instance,  the  pitui- 
tary. The  pituitary,  built  of  two  distinct  portions,  the  anterior 
and  the  posterior,  is  in  equilibrium  when  the  two  are  nicely  ad- 
justed. But  the  accidents  and  vicissitudes  of  life  (pregnancy  for 
example)  will  upset  the  balance.  And  so  there  will  result  changes 
of  physique,  conduct  and  character.  Like  possibilities  apply  to 
all  the  other  glands  of  internal  secretion.  In  our  ability  to 
exercise  a  control  over  these  disturbances  of  balance,  to  be  devel- 
oped in  the  future,  lies  one  of  the  great  hopes  for  a  chemical 
perfectability  of  human  life  and  nature. 

Nature's  Experiments  vs.  Man's 

The  kinds  of  personality  described,  as  prototypes  and  variants 
and  the  fundamental  facts  supporting  the  view  that  they  are  the 
reaction  types  of  the  human  beings  we  meet  in  everyday  life, 
represent  simply  a  beginning  of  the  work  to  be  done.  Putting 
into  our  hands  a  new  powerful  searchlight  that  penetrates  the 
interiors  of  body  and  soul,  a  fresh  attitude  toward  the  complicated 
problems  of  Man  in  society  grows  imminent.  The  normal  and 
the  abnormal  become  illuminated  with  an  effect  as  if  our  retinas 
were  suddenly  to  get  sensitive  to  the  ultraviolet  rays  to  which 
we  are  now  blind.  An  apparatus  is  put  in  our  hands  which  shows 
us  not  only  a  static  condition  at  a  given  moment,  but  the  whole 
life  process  of  an  individual,  normal  or  abnormal,  his  past  and 
his  future. 

Upon  that  fetich  of  the  biologists,  the  struggle  for  existence,  the 
struggle  for  survival,  the  struggle  for  possessions  and  satisfac- 
tions, for  happiness,  victory  and  virility,  in  short,  for  success,  as 
success  is  measured  by  the  biologists,  a  searching  spectroscope 


230     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

can  play,  with  a  yield  for  our  understanding  and  control  of  life, 
that  will  stand  comparison  with  the  astronomer's  analysis  of  the 
stars.  Toward  the  process  of  adjustment  and  adaptation,  of  the 
environment  to  the  individual,  as  well  as  of  the  individual  to  the 
environment,  attitudes  will  change  from  hopeless  acquiescence  in 
the  inevitable  to  a  complete  self-determination  of  the  self  and  its 
surroundings.  The  adventures  of  the  personality,  strung  along 
as  the  episodes  of  his  career,  his  friendships  and  sex  reactions,  his 
mishaps  and  diseases,  and  the  final  fate  or  fortune  that  overtakes 
him,  be  he  normal,  subnormal,  supernormal,  or  abnormal,  begin 
to  become  comprehensible,  and  hence  controllable. 


CHAPTER  XI 

SOME  HISTORIC  PERSONAGES 

The  Internal  Secretions  in  History 

According  to  the  views,  facts  and  guesses  concerning  human 
personality,  as  a  body-mind  complex  dominated  by  the  internal 
secretions,  outlined  in  the  preceding  pages,  biography,  and  human 
history  as  the  interaction  of  biographies,  become  capable  of 
interpretation  from  a  new  standpoint.  If  human  life,  in  its 
essentials,  is  so  much  the  product  of  the  internal  messenger  sys- 
tem we  speak  of  as  the  endocrines,  then  biography  should  present 
us  with  a  number  of  illustrations  of  their  power  and  influence. 
What  is  the  evidence  that,  as  Huxley  anticipated,  "the  introduc- 
tion into  the  economy  of  a  molecular  mechanism  which,  like  a 
cunningly  contrived  torpedo,  shall  find  its  way  to  some  par- 
ticular group  of  living  elements,  and  cause  an  explosion  among 
them,  leaving  the  rest  untouched,"  and  the  multiplication  of  such 
cunningly  contrived  mechanisms,  were  responsible  for  those  per- 
sonalities, magnificent  chemical  compounds,  with  whose  adven- 
tures historians  are  concerned? 

The  Case  of  Napoleon 

As  a  unique  will  and  intelligence,  Napoleon  Bonaparte  the  First 
must  be  classed  as  one  of  the  Betelegeuses  of  the  race.  H.  G. 
Wells  has  called  his  career  the  "raid  of  an  intolerable  egotist 
across  the  disordered  beginning  of  a  new  time."  "The  figure  of  an 
adventurer  and  wrecker."  "This  saturnine  egotist."  "Are  men 
dazzled  simply  by  the  scale  of  his  flounderings,  by  the  mere  vast- 
ness  of  his  notoriety?"  "This  dark  little  archaic  personage, 
hard,  compact,  capable,  unscrupulous,  imitative  and  neatly  vul- 
gar." There  are  other  opinions.  The  Man  of  Destiny  was  wor- 
shipped by  millions.  Napoleona  bring  fortunes  today.  Interest 
in  the  man  as  a  man  has  multiplied  with  every  year.  And 
certainly  no  one  can  deny  him  the  quality  of  individuality  in  its 
most  exaggerated  form. 

231 


232      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

In  the  second  place  he  belongs  among  the  moderns.  Modern 
science  and  methods  of  observation  have  had  their  chance  at  him, 
and  have  left  a  conscious  record  of  their  results.  Napoleon  was 
the  central  figure  of  his  time,  and  was  watched  by  trained  medical 
eyes  during  his  life,  and  after  his  death.  Protocols  of  the  exami- 
nation of  his  body  are  accessible,  and  Napoleonic  specimens,  pre- 
served by  fixing  agents,  may  still  be  viewed  at  the  Museum  of  the 
Royal  College  of  Surgeons,  England.  Dr.  Leonard  Guthrie  has 
worked  up  the  material  at  hand  in  a  report  which  he  presented 
to  the  historical  section  of  the  International  Congress  of  Medi- 
cine, in  London  in  1913.  I  propose  to  relate  his  findings  to  some 
other  facts  and  the  general  principles  roughly  sketched  in  this 
book. 

There  are  a  number  of  word  portraits  of  Napoleon  extant.  But 
for  our  purposes  certain  of  the  notable  features  of  his  face  and 
physique  are  to  be  considered.  The  first  characteristic  that  struck 
everyone  about  him  was  the  matter  of  his  height.  He  was  defi- 
nitely sub-average,  at  death  being  about  five  feet  six  inches  in 
height.  As  has  been  emphasized  several  times,  deficiency  or  ex- 
cess of  growth  will  always  direct  attention  to  the  pituitary.  His 
sharply  outlined  features  and  a  powerful  lower  jaw,  combined 
with  oddly  small  plump  hands,  long  straight  black  hair,  and  dark 
complexion,  all  point  to  the  pituitary,  with  a  secondary  adrenal 
effect.  His  pulse  was  slow,  according  to  Corvisart,  his  personal 
physician,  rarely  above  50  to  the  minute.  His  sexual  life,  his 
libido,  was  abnormal.  Curiously  explosive  in  their  appearance 
and  manifestations  were  his  sexual  impulses.  They  "beset  him  on 
occasions  which  were  sometimes  inconvenient,  and  a  peculiarity 
about  them  was  that  they  subsided  with  equal  suddenness  if  not 
immediately  gratified,  or  if  meanwhile  something  occurred  to  dis- 
courage his  attention.  All  women  were  to  him  'filles  de  joie.' 
Sexual  rather  than  social  attractions  in  women  appealed  to  him." 
He  was  never  in  love,  never  possessed  of  permanent  affection  or 
tenderness  for  any  woman.  This  explosive  periodicity  of  the 
sexual  life,  "with  a  tendency  to  compression  of  it  to  the  merely 
physical,"  is  another  mark  of  some  pituitary-centered  person- 
alities. 

Two  other  phenomena  that  persisted  throughout  his  life  throw 
light  upon  his  endocrine  constitution.  One  was  trouble  with  his 
bladder  which  he  told  Antommarchi,  another  physician,  bothered 
him  as  long  as  he  could  remember.  Irritability  of  the  bladder  was 
so  pronounced  that  he  could  not  sleep  for  more  than  a  few  hours 


SOME  HISTORIC  PERSONAGES  233 

at  a  time.  After  battles,  the  trouble  became  worse  so  that  it 
interfered  with  his  riding.  Constitutional  difficulties  in  urination 
have  been  connected  definitely  with  the  function  of  the  pituitary. 
The  other  pituitary  disturbances  which  tinctured  his  life  were 
certain  "brain  storms,"  attacks  of  vomiting  followed  by  "stupor 
verging  on  unconsciousness"  brought  on  by  outbursts  of  temper, 
physical  overexertion,  mental  strain,  or  sexual  excitement.  It 
has  been  shown  that  such  epileptic  tendencies  are  present  in 
subjects  of  pituitary  disease,  particularly  those  with  pituitary 
instability.  In  Napoleon's  case  the  brain  attacks  may  have  been 
crises  of  pituitary  insufficiency  in  a  hyper-pituitary  type.  This 
supposition  is  borne  out  by  the  headache  which  followed  them,  the 
headache  of  an  oversecreting  pituitary  compensating  for  a  defect 
in  its  formation.  During  his  prime,  his  intellect  was  mathe- 
matical, logical,  and  rational,  and  remarkable  for  a  prodigious 
memory.  Such  an  intellect  is  the  product  of  an  extraordinary 
ante-pituitary.  That  he  never  permitted  feeling  to  interfere 
with  the  dictates  of  his  judgment,  a  quality  which  rendered  him 
the  most  unscrupulous  careerist  of  history,  must  be  put  down  to 
an  insufficiency  of  the  post-pituitary.  What  post-pituitary  does 
to  the  brain  cells  and  the  organism  as  a  whole  to  render  them 
susceptible  to  sympathy  and  suggestion,  the  social  sublimations 
of  the  maternal  instinct,  with  its  offsprings  of  religion  and  art, 
we  have  seen.  Napoleon  lacked  a  chemical  trace  of  the  religious 
instinct,  his  sympathy  was  nil,  and  his  conquests  were  made  pos- 
sible only  because  he  was  blind  to  the  suffering  and  misery  his 
greed  for  glory  and  dominion  generated.  Post-pituitary  insuf- 
ficients  of  this  type,  patent  or  concealed,  gradually  become  cor- 
pulent as  they  grow  older.  The  increasing  corpulency  of  Napo- 
leon was  commented  upon  by  all  observers. 

A  student  of  his  make-up,  and  acquainted  with  present  develop- 
ments concerning  the  internal  secretions,  given  an  opportunity  to 
observe  him  as  we  have  when  he  was  alive,  and  at  the  height  of 
his  success,  would  have  had  every  reason  for  classing  him  a 
pituitary-centered,  ante-pituitary  superior,  post-pituitary  inferior, 
with  an  instability  of  both  that  would  lead  to  his  final  degenera- 
tion. Besides,  his  insatiable  energy  indicated  an  excellent  thy- 
roid, his  pugnacity,  animality  and  genius  for  practical  affairs 
a  superb  adrenal.  Given  the  kind  of  pituitary  he  possessed, 
with  its  great  intellectual  potential  energy  and  the  relation  be- 
tween the  two  parts  which  would  further  the  objects  of  an  intel- 
lectual machine,  plus  a  remarkable  thyroid  and  adrenal,  plus  the 


234     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALIT 

military  education  Napoleon  had,  and  the  character  of  the  Revo- 
lution into  which  he  was  plunged,  and  we  have  the  conditions  out 
of  which  his  career  emerged  as  inevitable. 

That  it  was  his  pituitary  which  first  failed  him,  rather  than 
the  thyroid  or  adrenal,  which  might  have,  is  demonstrated  by  a 
number  of  considerations.  Before  he  made  himself  Emperor,  it 
was  noticed  that  he  was  becoming  fat,  a  pituitary  symptom.  A 
comparison  of  portraits  at  different  stages  of  his  rise  and  fall 
shows  an  increasing  abdominal  paunch,  and  a  laying  down  of  fat 
in  the  pituitary  areas,  around  the  hips,  the  legs  and  so  on.  The 
beginning  of  weakness  in  judgment  that  he  was  to  exhibit  soon  in 
the  invasion  of  Russia  manifested  itself  at  the  same  time.  His 
keen  calculating  ability  attained  the  peak  of  its  curve  at  Auster- 
litz,  Jena  and  Friedland.  Thereafter,  the  descent  begins.  A 
rash,  grandiose,  speculative  quality  enters  his  projects,  and 
divorces  the  elaborate  coordination  of  means  and  end  from  his 
plans.  That  his  thyroid  energy  capacity  did  not  fail  him  is 
indicated  by  the  fact  that  at  St.  Albans  he  would  ride  for  three 
hours  at  the  end  of  the  day  to  tire  himself  sufficiently  for  sleep. 
That  his  adrenals  were  not  affected  is  indicated  by  the  brutality 
which  remained  characteristic  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

The  findings  after  death  confirm  the  view  of  him  as  an  unstable 
pituitocentric  who  succumbed  to  pituitary  insufficiency  toward 
the  latter  half  of  his  life.  We  possess  the  account  of  the  post- 
mortem by  Dr.  Henry,  who  performed  it.  "The  whole  surface 
of  the  body  was  deeply  covered  with  fat.  Over  the  sternum, 
where  generally  the  bone  is  very  superficial,  the  fat  was  upwards 
of  an  inch  deep,  and  an  inch  and  a  half  or  two  inches  on  the 
abdomen.  There  was  scarcely  any  hair  on  the  body,  and  that 
of  the  head  was  thin,  fine  and  silky.  The  whole  genital  system 
(very  small)  seemed  to  exhibit  a  physical  cause  for  the  absence 
of  sexual  desire,  and  the  chastity  which  had  been  stated  to  have 
characterized  the  deceased  (during  his  stay  at  St.  Helena) .  The 
skin  was  noticed  to  be  very  white  and  delicate  as  were  the  hands 
and  arms.  Indeed  the  whole  body  was  slender  and  effeminate. 
The  pubis  much  resembled  the  Mons  Veneris  in  women.  The 
muscles  of  the  chest  were  small,  the  shoulders  were  narrow  and 
the  hips  wide."  In  other  words,  the  typical  feminization  of  the 
body  which  accompanies  pituitary  insufficiency  was  found.  He 
died  of  a  cancer  of  the  stomach.  But  before  his  death  there  were 
noted  the  mental  transformations  that  succeed  deficiency  of  his 
central  endocrine.     Apathy,  indolence,  fatigability,  and  frilosity 


SOME  HISTORIC  PERSONAGES  235 

were  what  impressed  his  associates  at  St.  Helena.  The  deterio- 
ration of  his  mentality  was  also  exemplified  in  his  literary  diver- 
sions, the  "Siege  of  Troy"  and  the  "Essay  on  Suicide."  The 
puerility  of  these  productions,  as  well  as  of  his  conduct,  a  sulking 
before  his  captors,  and  the  decline  of  his  physical  energy,  once  a 
bottomless  well,  all  point  to  the  same  conclusion. 

The  rise  and  fall  of  Napoleon  followed  the  rise  and  fall  of  his 
pituitary  gland.  No  better  illustration  exists  of  the  fundamental 
determination  of  a  personality  and  its  career  by  an  endocrine, 
aside  from  other  factors  of  education,  environment,  accident  and 
opportunity.  Without  the  sort  of  endocrine  equipment  he  was 
born  with,  however,  none  of  the  other  factors  would  have  found 
the  material  to  work  upon.  Born,  say,  with  more  of  a  posterior 
pituitary  than  he  had,  which  would  have  rendered  him  more 
sensitive  to  the  sufferings  of  his  fellow-creatures,  if  nothing  else, 
and  the  forces  of  the  Revolution  probably  would  have  swamped 
him  from  the  very  first  moment  of  his  emergence  at  Toulon, 
when  the  whiff  of  grape-shot,  symptom  of  an  inexorable,  merciless 
intellect  and  will,  started  him  upon  the  road  that  led  to  the 
Napoleonic  Era.  Destiny  is  always  ironic.  For  the  deficiency 
of  the  internal  secretions  which  made  him  eligible  for  glory  was 
responsible  as  well  as  for  his  downfall. 

Epilepsy  and  Migraine  in  Genius 

In  the  annals  of  genius,  there  occur  a  number  of  instances  of 
those  who  suffered  from  attacks  that  have  been  diagnosed  epi- 
lepsy or  migraine.  Because  their  ailment  was  associated  with 
their  extraordinary  ability,  they  attracted  an  attention  that 
concerned  itself  not  at  all  with  the  circumstance  that  genius  has 
also  been  liable  to  measles,  scarlet  fever,  and  so#  on.  Epilepsy 
and  migraine  certainly  occur  in  people  of  no  supernormal  gifts, 
and  often  in  degenerates  and  subnormals.  Yet  the  fact  remains 
that  these  affections  of  the  nervous  system,  so  terrible  to  feel  and 
to  behold,  have  afflicted  the  finest  brains  of  the  race. 

About  forty  years  ago  the  idea  established  itself  that  epilepsy, 
exhibiting  itself  in  one  form  or  another  as  "fits,"  and  migraine, 
the  severe  periodic  sick  headache,  were  interconvertible  mani- 
festations of  the  same  underlying  morbid  process  in  the  brain. 
Nothing  in  the  way  of  a  concrete  cause,  attackable  on  the  mate- 
rial side,  was  elicited  by  this  generalization.  Then  the  inves- 
tigations of  the  pituitary  in  the  last  decade  produced  evidence  of 


236     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

epilepsy-like  and  migraine-like  symptoms  in  sufferers  from  tu- 
mors or  other  enlargements  of  it.  Reasoning  back,  cases  of  epi- 
lepsy and  migraine  began  to  be  examined  for  evidences  of  involve- 
ment of  the  pituitary  in  their  troubles.  These  accumulated 
rapidly.  The  physiognomy  and  physique  of  the  pituito-centric 
were  discovered  in  them.  The  phenomena  noted  in  Napoleon's 
case  were  often  present:  lowering  of  the  pulse,  chilliness,  and 
an  increased  irritability  of  the  bladder.  In  women  the  attack 
often  coincides  with  the  menstrual  period,  a  typical  time  of 
endocrine  unbalance.  Finally  X-ray  examinations  of  the  sella 
turcica,  the  bony  lodging  of  the  pituitary,  clinched  the  matter: 
it  often  appeared  small,  or  enlarged,  with  erosions  of  the  bone, 
signifying  a  desperate  attempt  of  the  gland  to  grow,  and  meet 
the  needs  of  the  organism.  The  complex  of  appearances  called 
migraine  now  becomes  understandable.  There  are  a  number  of 
factors,  such  as  fatigue,  intense  cold,  or  high  sugar  food  like 
chocolate,  which  will  cause  an  engorgement  of  the  gland  with 
blood  and  swelling  of  it.  But  they  do  not  concern  us  now.  In- 
tense mental  occupation,  concentration  as  the  popular  term  has 
it,  acts  as  a  patent  excitor  of  the  attack. 

Brain  work  drives  more  blood  into  the  brain  and  the  gland. 
Besides,  mental  activity  is  accompanied  by  increased  function 
of  the  ante-pituitary,  if  intellectual,  or  of  the  post-pituitary  if 
emotional.  Brain  work  then  causes  a  temporary  enlargement  of 
the  gland.  If,  now,  the  bone  container  of  the  endocrine  is  too 
small  to  permit  of  much  swelling,  the  bone  will  be  pressed  against 
or  even  worn  into.  This  means  headache,  severe,  easily  going  on 
to  the  kind  known  as  sick-headache.  The  nerves  which  move 
the  eyes  in  various  directions  lie  next  to  the  pituitary.  If,  in  its 
expansion,  it  moves  sufficiently  outward,  it  may  press  upon,  irri- 
tate them  or  paralyze,  and  so  evolve  various  eye  disturbances 
in  association  with  the  headache.  No  one  can  overrate  this  con- 
ception of  migraine,  for  a  number  of  men  of  genius  have  suffered 
from  sick-headache  and  eye  symptoms. 

As  for  epilepsy,  the  problem  is  more  complex.  One  has  to  rule 
out  first  those  who  have  organic  destructive  disease  of  the  brain. 
But  they  are  out  of  our  field:  genius  predicates  at  least  an  intact 
brain.  Of  the  others  a  number  may  be  interpreted  upon  an  endo- 
crine basis.  At  least  they  will,  in  their  physiognomy,  physique, 
mentality,  conduct  and  character,  document  the  glandular  con- 
stellation under  which  they  live,  and  a  proper  understanding  of 
which  is  necessary  for  them  to  be  helped.    One  frequently  seen 


SOME  HISTORIC  PERSONAGES  237 

is  the  thymo-centric,  with  small  enclosed  sella  turcica.  The  latter 
fact  explains  the  occurrence  of  the  epilepsy.  Periodic  variutions 
in  the  secretory  tides  of  the  other  endocrines,  the  ovaries,  the 
thyroid,  and  so  on,  may  determine  the  onset  of  the  attack  of  "fits." 
The  point  is  that  when  epilepsy  plays  a  constant  part  in  the  life 
history  of  a  man  of  genius,  we  are  justified  in  assuming  a  dis- 
turbed balance  among  his  hormones,  and  so  a  reasoned  picture 
perhaps  of  the  foundations  for  the  erratic  in  his  behaviour  or  his 
productions. 

The  Neurasthenic  Genius 

The  fin  de  siecle  intelligentsia  of  the  nineteenth  century  were 
quite  stirred  up  by  a  publication  of  Max  Nordau  on  "Degen- 
eration," in  which  a  number  of  revered  artists  and  intellighents 
were  help  up  to  public  scorn  as  degenerates  and  neurasthenics. 
So  wrought  up  were  they,  in  fact,  that  Bernard  Shaw  was  moved 
to  compose  a  defense  entitled  "The  Sanity  of  Art."  In  spite 
of  the  Great  Vegetarian's  dialectics,  it  remains  to  be  explained 
why  a  certain  species  of  creative  ability  has  been  combined  with 
the  fatigability,  variability  and  general  wretched  irritability  of 
every  organ  and  tissue  in  the  body  which  taught  them  that  they 
were  sensitive  souls  imprisoned  in  the  flesh.  Going  from  doctor 
to  doctor  as  from  pillar  to  post,  from  this  medical  creed  to  that 
hygienic  cult,  lucky  to  escape  the  worst,  often  landing  upon  the 
bosom  of  New  Thought  for  succor.  We  have  noted  in  previous 
chapters  the  relation  of  neurasthenia  to  the  glands  of  internal 
secretion  in  general,  and  to  adrenal  insufficiency  in  particular. 
A  closer  examination  of  neurasthenic  genius  will  show  it  to  con- 
sist essentially  of  a  pituitocentric  in  whom  for  one  reason  or 
another,  congenital  (the  persistence  of  the  thymus)  or  acquired 
(shocks,  accidents,  diseases)  there  has  been  failure  of  the  adre- 
nals, thyroid  or  the  interstitial  cells,  about  in  the  order  of  their 
occurrence. 

The  Case  of  Nietzsche 

Friedrich  Nietzsche  is  about  as  good  a  case  as  there  is  on 
record  of  a  genius  blasted  by  migraine.  The  originality  and 
force  of  his  mind,  as  well  as  the  articulate  music  of  an  imagina- 
tive poet,  places  Nietzsche  among  the  philosophic  elect  of  the 
race.  Showing  that  he  was  an  unstable  pituitary-centered  of  a 
certain  type  will  throw  light  upon  his  malady,  as  well  as  upon 
his  life  and  work. 


238     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

In  a  set  of  volumes,  entitled  Biographic  Clinics,  Dr.  George 
M.  Gould  of  Philadelphia  contended  that  the  ill  health  of  a 
number  of  men  and  women  of  genius  of  the  nineteenth  century 
was  due  to  uncorrected  eye  troubles.  In  attempting  to  bolster 
up  his  thesis  he  has  collected  biographic  material  useful  to  the 
student  of  personality.  He  never  appears  to  have  asked  himself 
what  was  behind  the  eye  trouble.  The  evidence  relating  to 
Nietzsche's  endocrine  personality  is  derived  from  some  of  the 
data  he  collected,  as  well  as  from  the  two  volume  life  of  the 
philosopher  written  by  his  sister,  and  the  other  biographies  of 
him  extant. 

To  reconstruct  the  endocrine  formula  or  equation  of  Nietzsche 
inductively,  one  should  analyze  first  the  information  available 
concerning  his  parents  and  relatives.  His  grandfather  was  a  con- 
servative bourgeois  of  a  superior  type,  who  was  the  author  of 
treatises  designed  to  narcotize  the  forces  of  rebellion  of  his  time. 
What  he  was  like  physically,  no  epitaph  declares.  His  father  was 
a  clergyman.  A  description  of  him  reads  .  .  .  "tall  and  slender, 
with  a  noble  and  poetic  personality,  and  a  peculiar  talent  for 
music  .  .  .  short-sighted."  That  ranks  him  at  once  as  a  pituito- 
centric.  The  mother  was  dark  and  had  a  fiery  temper  and  came 
of  a  family  distinguished  for  the  powerfully  built  anatomy  of  its 
members.  In  the  heredity  of  Nietzsche,  the  father  appears  there- 
fore to  supply  a  pituitary  predominating  element,  the  mother  an 
adrenal-pituitary  predominating  element. 

Nietzsche  himself  worked  strenuously  at  the  intellectual  life 
(after  20,  when  he  probably  stopped  growing,  and  the  brain  tonic 
action  of  the  ante-pituitary  could  manifest  itself).  Early  dis- 
tinction rewarded  him  with  a  professorship  in  philology  at  24. 
One  of  Prussia's  wars  of  conquest  entangled  him,  and  presented 
him  with  diphtheria.  A  friendship  with  Richard  Wagner  marked 
the  turning  point  of  his  life,  and  the  point  of  departure  for  his 
works  on  the  most  fundamental  values  of  human  life.  Mean- 
while, attacks  of  sick-headache  of  varying  degrees  of  severity 
made  him  miserable  periodically — they  came  about  every  two 
weeks  and  lasted  two  to  three  days — and  left  him  wretched  and 
exhausted.  At  last,  at  44,  a  species  of  stroke  terminated  his 
sufferings,  causing  him  to  lose  his  speech  and  memory,  and 
thenceforth  there  was  progressive  deterioration,  physical  and 
spiritual,  with  repeated  attacks. 

In  the  sister's  biography  there  are  several  good  photographs 
and  reproductions  of  sculptures  of  Nietzsche  at  different  ages. 


SOME  HISTORIC  PERSONAGES  239 

An  examination  of  the  frontispiece  picture,  which  shows  him  in 
profile  (profile  views  are  the  best  for  physiognomy),  as  well  as 
of  the  bust  of  Nietzsche  by  Donndorf,  exhibit  the  most  striking 
traits  of  the  head.  To  the  student  of  internal  secretions,  the 
most  prominent  feature  of  the  face,  emphasized  by  both  the 
camera  and  the  artist,  is  the  remarkable  prominence  of  the  supra- 
orbital arches,  the  bony  protuberances  from  which  the  eyebrows 
spring.  This  is  a  definite  pituitary  character.  The  eyebrows 
themselves  are  luxurious  and  slope  to  meet,  the  bony  development 
of  the  face  as  a  whole  is  sharp  and  clean-cut,  the  skull  tends  to  be 
long  and  narrow  and  the  chin  is  square.  All  these  point  to  a 
pituitary-centered  personality.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  we  have 
no  picture  or  record  of  Nietzsche  caught  smiling,  which  would 
have  preserved  the  state  of  his  teeth  for  us.  At  any  rate,  con- 
sidered as  checks  to  my  interpretation,  his  physiognomy  and 
physique,  the  nature  of  his  genius  and  the  attacks  which  finally 
ruined  his  life,  all  fit  into  the  conception  of  him  as  one  whose  life 
centered,  like  Napoleon's,  around  what  was  happening  in  his 
sella  turcica. 

The  attacks  of  sick-headache,  diagnosable  symptomatically  as 
migraine,  were  so  devastating  that  in  1883,  after  the  printing  of 
his  masterpiece,  "Also  Sprach  Zarathustra,"  he  wrote  "My  life 
has  been  a  complete  failure."  Extracts  from  his  letters,  collected 
by  Gould,  provide  some  idea  of  his  suffering.  In  1888,  just  be- 
fore his  stroke,  he  said,  "I  have  in  my  eyes  a  dynamometer  of  my 
entire  condition." 

The  history  of  Nietzsche's  eye  trouble  makes  it  probable  that 
not  simply  a  defect  in  his  eyes  themselves,  but  a  deeper  condition 
behind  them  was  responsible.  Up  to  the  age  of  15  he  was  a  model 
scholar.  Essential  eye  defects  of  refraction  should  make  them- 
selves felt  during  childhood.  Then,  with  adolescence,  he  changed. 
Adolescence  is  one  of  the  red-letter  epochs  for  the  pituitary,  when 
its  growth  and  enlargement  precedes  and  stimulates  the  ripening 
of  the  sex  cells  in  the  reproductive  organs.  Until  adolescence 
ended  and  physical  development  ceased,  his  intellectual  interests 
were  nil,  and  he  was  particularly  backward  in  mathematics.  Colds 
and  coughs,  and  recurring  pains  in  the  head  and  eyes  bothered 
him  (colds  and  coughs  are  frequent  in  those  whose  pituitary 
expansion  is  limited  by  the  bony  sella  turcica  to  any  extent). 
After  his  puberty,  migraine  definitely  became  his  demon  compan- 
ion. Following  the  diphtheria  in  the  army  (which  must  have 
damaged  his  adrenals),  the  attacks  grew  much  worse,  and  com- 


240      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

plaints  about  them  more  bitter  because  the  pituitary  now,  in 
addition  to  its  own  burden,  had  to  compensate  for  the  insufficient 
adrenals.  So  "his  frequent  illness  made  him  more  and  more  a 
subject  of  treatment  and  commiseration.  ...  If  only  my  eyes 
would  hold  out  ...  it  seems  to  me  at  the  age  of  30  as  if  I  had 
lived  60  years  .  .  .  very  frequent  sufferings  of  stomach,  head  and 
eyes  .  .  .  acidity  oppresses  me,  and  everything  except  the  tender- 
est  food  becomes  acid.  ...  I  cannot  doubt  that  I  am  the  victim 
of  a  serious  cerebral  disease,  and  that  stomach  and  eyes  suffer 
only  from  this  central  cause  .  .  .  half-dead  with  pain  and  ex- 
haustion." In  December  1888,  he  fell,  had  to  be  helped  home,  lay 
silent  for  two  days,  then  became  loud,  active  and  unbalanced. 
The  attack  was  preceded  by  the  drinking  of  much  water. 

The  specific  quality  of  the  Nietzsche  genius  also  directs  atten- 
tion to  a  pituitocentric,  to  a  pituitocentric  in  whom  both  ante- 
pituitary  and  post-pituitary  are  extraordinarily  well- functioning, 
but  are  in  a  state  of  unbalance  in  which  the  post-pituitary  gets 
the  upper  hand.  Now,  as  we  have  seen,  the  post-pituitary  makes 
for  that  instability  of  association  between  the  brain  cells  which 
must  be  at  the  bottom  of  originality  and  creative  thought,  as  well 
as  of  phobias,  obsessions,  hysterias  and  hallucinations.  Persons 
in  whom  the  post-pituitary  predominates  have  a  lively  fancy  and 
are  liable  to  suffer  from  the  tricks  of  association.  Nietzsche,  as 
we  have  noted,  was  poor  in  mathematics  and  in  the  calm  cool 
proportioned  forward  march  of  scientific  thought  in  general.  His 
most  brilliant  ideas  came  to  him  in  flashes  and  gleams.  That  is 
why  so  much  of  his  work  has  come  down  to  us  in  the  form  of 
aphorisms  and  paragraphs.  He  was,  essentially,  a  poet  among 
the  metaphysicians,  which  again  favors  the  conception  of  him 
as  a  pituitary-centered  with  a  dominant  post-pituitary.  Yet  his 
incisive  critical  faculty,  as  well  as  his  love  of  music,  also  docu- 
ment the  supernormal  ante-pituitary. 

To  sum  up,  the  physique  and  physiognomy  of  Nietzsche,  his 
migraine  attacks  and  the  later  fate  which  overtook  him,  his 
likes  and  dislikes,  his  tastes,  abilities  and  accomplishments  fol- 
lowed from  his  composition  as  one  pituitary-centered,  with  post- 
pituitary  domination,  a  superior  thyroid,  and  inferior  adrenals. 

Darwin  as  a  Neurasthenic  Genius 

Charles  Darwin,  as  the  author  of  the  "Origin  of  Species"  and 
the  greatest  revolutionist  of  the  nineteenth  century,  has  naturally 


SOME  HISTORIC  PERSONAGES  241 

had  a  great  deal  of  attention  paid  to  his  life  and  personality. 
Yet  not  until  the  publication  of  his  Autobiography  and  his  son's 
Reminiscences  was  it  generally  known  that  he  suffered  from 
chronic  ill  health  for  most  of  his  adult  life.  Dr.  W.  A.  Johnston, 
in  an  article  in  the  American  Anthropologist,  1901,  has  marshalled 
a  number  of  available  facts,  to  sustain  his  thesis  that  Darwin 
was  a  victim  of  neurasthenia.  Now  neurasthenia,  it  is  now  ac- 
cepted, is  simply  a  waste-basket  word,  corresponding  to  the  class 
miscellaneous  in  a  classification  of  any  group  of  real  objects. 
And,  as  has  been  emphasized  in  preceding  chapters,  most  neuras- 
thenia rises  upon  a  disturbed  endocrine  foundation,  most  often, 
an  insufficiency  of  the  adrenals.  That  is,  a  defect  in  the  chain 
of  co-operation,  balance  and  compensation  among  the  internal 
secretions  is  the  basis  for  the  weakness  of  the  nervous  system 
the  term  neurasthenia  is  supposed  to  explain,  actually  only 
names.    Darwin's  case  was  pretty  certainly  that. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Darwin  had  an  abnormal  fatiga- 
bility, a  lack  of  stamina  and  endurance  in  mental  as  well  as 
physical  application  which  plagued  him  from  the  late  twenties 
to  the  sixties.  As  a  child,  he  was  strong  and  healthy,  fond  of 
outdoors,  and  though  underrated  by  his  teachers,  noted  to  be  pos- 
sessed of  intense  curiosity,  especially  concerning  natural  objects. 
At  school  he  was  a  fleet  runner  and  cultivated  a  habit  of  long 
walks.  Then  he  was  surely  no  neurasthenic.  Three  years  which, 
he  himself  afterwards  said,  were  worse  than  wasted,  at  Cam- 
bridge, were  filled  with  shooting,  riding  and  hunting.  His  good 
health  lasted  until  the  time  he  probably  stopped  growing  at  21  or 
22.     Thereafter  his  troubles  began. 

What  was  Darwin,  so  far  as  his  endocrine  composition  was  con- 
cerned? In  the  first  place  his  father  was  a  variety  of  pituitocen- 
tric,  of  the  post-pituitary  inferior  type,  six  feet  two  inches  tall, 
exceedingly  corpulent,  and,  in  the  eyes  of  his  son,  the  sharpest 
of  observers  and  the  most  sympathetic  of  men.  He  wished  to 
make  a  physician  out  of  his  son  in  order  to  carry  on  the  medical 
tradition  of  the  family:  Erasmus  Darwin  was  a  physician  before 
him.  His  son,  however,  showed  no  inclination  for  so  learned 
and  confining  a  profession  and  had  to  be  reproached  by  his  father 
in  these  immortal  words:  "You  care  for  nothing  but  shooting 
dogs,  and  rat-catching,  and  you  will  be  a  disgrace  to  yourself  and 
all  your  family." 

Cambridge  came  after  Edinburgh,  as  he  was  rushed  from  medi- 
cine into  the  clergy.    But  in  vain.    A  friendship  struck  up  with  a 


242     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

naturalist,  Henslow,  settled  his  career  for  him.  Henslow  heard  of 
a  trip  of  general  exploration  the  ship  Beagle  was  to  take  and 
recommended  Darwin  as  naturalist.  The  captain  at  first  would 
not  hear  of  the  proposal  because  of  Darwin's  nose,  a  typical 
pituitary  proboscis.  But  his  prejudices  were  overcome,  and 
Darwin  sailed. 

It  was  upon  this  voyage  that  Darwin  made  himself  the  greatest 
naturalist  of  all  time,  and  at  the  same  time  infected  himself  with 
the  virus  of  neurasthenia.  At  Plymouth,  while  waiting  for  the 
ship  to  sail,  he  complained  of  palpitation  and  pain  about  the 
heart,  probably  due  to  a  transient  hyperthyroidism,  brought  on 
by  excitement.  During  the  voyage,  which  lasted  five  years,  he 
was  afflicted  often  by  sea-sickness.  A  ship-mate  relates  that 
after  spending  an  hour  with  the  microscope  he  would  say  "Old 
Fellow,  I  must  take  the  horizontal  for  it"  and  lie  down.  He 
would  stretch  out  on  one  side  of  the  table,  then  resume  his  labors 
for  a  while  when  he  again  had  to  lie  down.  Already  fatigability 
had  to  be  fed  with  rest.  A  serious  illness  that  Darwin  claimed 
affected  every  secretion  of  his  body  acted  probably  as  the  ex- 
hausting drain  upon  his  adrenal  potential. 

The  return  to  England  was  the  date  of  onset  for  a  record  of 
continuous  illness,  aggravated  by  his  marriage,  apparently,  for 
his  misery  increased  progressively  after  it.  So  much  so  that  he 
was  forced  to  leave  London  altogether  so  as  to  avoid  the  strain 
of  social  life,  even  that  of  meeting  his  scientific  friends  or  attend- 
ing scientific  society  meetings  fatiguing  him  to  exhaustion.  After 
such  occasions  there  would  be  attacks  of  violent  shivering,  with 
vomiting  and  giddiness.  It  was  necessary  for  him  to  impose  upon 
himself  an  absolute  regime  of  daily  routine.  Any  interference 
with  it  upset  him  completely,  and  made  it  impossible  for  him  to 
do  any  work.  Early  morning  was  the  only  time  for  physical  as 
well  as  mental  exertion.  Evening  found  him  thoroughly  used  up, 
with  every  move  an  effort.  Insomnia  made  him  its  prey.  A 
curious  sensitiveness  to  heat  and  cold  distressed  him.  In  1859, 
when  the  "Origin  of  Species"  appeared,  he  wrote  to  a  friend  that 
his  health  had  quite  failed,  and  that  indigestion,  headaches,  with 
a  looming  hopeless  breakdown  of  body  and  mind  made  his  life 
a  burden  and  a  curse.  The  twenty  years  of  research  he  devoted 
to  the  problems  of  evolution  were  one  long  torture.  For  sixteen 
more  years,  during  which  he  worked  upon  and  produced  immortal 
classics  of  biology,  he  was  the  most  wretched  and  unhappy  suf- 
ferer from  neurasthenia.     His  life  was  a  continuous  alternation 


SOME  HISTORIC  PERSONAGES  243 

of  small  doses  of  work  and  large  doses  of  rest.  So  he  was  enabled 
to  publish  twenty-three  volumes  of  original  writing  and  fifty-one 
scientific  papers.  Living  a  sort  of  quasi-sanitarium  life,  with  the 
rules  and  regulations  of  one  undergoing  a  rest  cure  for  thirty-six 
years,  he  thus  accomplished  infinitely  more  than  the  millions  who 
have  led  the  strenuous  life.  That  he  thus  survived,  as  a  genius, 
among  the  perils  of  an  intellectual  nature  in  an  environment  for 
which  his  adrenals  sentenced  him  to  destruction,  must  be  put 
down  in  large  measure  to  the  ministrations  and  good  sense  of 
wife  and  children  who  supplied  him  with  the  endocrine  energy  he 
lacked.  All  these  details  I  have  given  in  the  attempt  to  analyze 
the  internal  secretion  constitution  of  this  great  man  of  genius, 
to  establish  that  he  really  suffered  from  inadequate  function  of 
his  adrenal  glands,  for  the  symptoms  of  chronic  though  benign 
adrenal  insufficiency  coincide  in  their  mass  effect  with  the  story 
of  his  life.  He  was  not  a  good  animal,  as  Herbert  Spencer  de- 
clared was  a  first  sine  qua  non  of  the  successful  life.  He  was  a 
poor  animal,  the  poorest  of  animals,  because  he  possessed  poor 
adrenals.  What  saved  him  was  his  congenitally  superior  pitui- 
tary (the  nidus  of  genius)  and  the  overacting  thyroid,  which 
combined  to  compensate  to  some  extent  for  his  fundamental  lack. 
According  to  his  son  he  rose  early  because  he  could  not  lie  in 
bed,  and  he  would  have  liked  to  get  up  earlier  than  he  did. 

What  other  hints  have  we  that  in  spite  of  his  fatigue  disease 
he  was  a  pituitocentric?  The  record  of  his  physique  and  physiog- 
nomy, documentary  and  that  left  in  portraits  and  photographs. 
He  was  tall  and  thin  and  his  frame  was  naturally  strong  and 
large.  Face  was  ruddy,  and  his  grey  eyes  looked  out  from 
under  deep  overhanging  brows  and  bushy  eyebrows.  The  ears 
were  large  and  prominent,  the  hair  straight,  the  nose  broad  and 
well  developed.  All  these  are  distinctive  pituitary  traits.  The 
photograph  of  him  taken  by  Maull  and  Fox  in  1854  shows  his 
chin  to  be  the  square  firm  kind  that  goes  with  the  ante-pituitary 
type  physique.  (This  photo  is  the  frontispiece  of  the  collection  of 
essays  entitled  "Darwinism  and  Modern  Science,"  edited  by  A. 
C.  Seward  and  published  in  1909).  Charles  Darwin,  we  may 
say,  then,  lived  the  life  of  one  with  a  hyperfunctioning  pituitary, 
the  anterior  portion  dominating  the  posterior,  a  thyroid  excess, 
and  an  adrenal  much  deficient,  the  combination  settling  the 
fate  of  a  grand  intellect  in  an  invalid.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
that  an  extant  portrait  of  Erasmus  Darwin,  Darwin's  distin- 
guished grandfather,  shows  a  pituitocentric,  but  with  a  rounder 


244     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

head  and  a  fatter  face,  which  point  to  a  predominance  of  the 
post-pituitary  over  the  ante-pituitary.  Correspondingly,  he  was 
more  speculative  and  poetic  intellectually  than  his  grandson,  and 
more  irascible  and  imperious  in  his  moods. 

After  1872,  when  Charles  Darwin  was  sixty-three  years  old,  a 
marked  change  for  the  better  occurred  in  his  health.  For  the 
last  ten  years  of  his  life  the  condition  of  his  health  was  a  cause 
of  satisfaction  and  hope  to  his  family.  "He  was  able  to  work 
more  steadily  with  less  fatigue  and  distress  afterwards."  This  is 
probably  to  be  explained  as  following  the  gonadopause  in  him — • 
the  cessation  of  activity  of  the  interstitial  cells.  After  this  event, 
the  adrenals  in  the  male  nearly  always  function  more  efficiently, 
and  well  being  is  improved  even  though  the  blood  pressure  often 
rises  coincidently.  In  the  relative  vigor  of  that  decade  we  have 
another  bit  of  evidence  that  the  adrenals  had  much  to  say  over 
Darwin's  life. 

Epileptic  Genius 

He  had  a  fever  when  he  was  in  Spain 

And,  when  the  fit  was  on  him,  I  did  mark 

How  he  did  shake:   'tis  true,  this  god  did  shake 

His  coward  lips  did  from  their  color  fly; 

And  that  same  eye  whose  bend  doth  awe  the  world, 

Did  lose  his  lustre:  I  did  hear  him  groan. 

— Julius  Csesar. 

Epilepsy,  the  "falling  sickness"  or  "fits,"  is  generally  associ- 
ated with  a  deterioration  or  degeneration  of  mentality,  and  an 
inferior  personality  is  frequently  an  ingredient.  Progressively 
increasing  data  accumulate  to  incriminate  more  and  more  a  dis- 
turbance of  the  endocrine  balance,  on  the  side  of  multiple  de- 
ficiencies, as  the  basic  mechanism  at  the  bottom  of  a  good  many 
of  them.  Concurrent  studies  reveal  that  abnormalities  of 
the  thyroid,  the  parathyroids,  the  ovaries  and  testes,  and  even 
the  thymus  exist  behind  the  attack.  Investigation  of  the  content 
of  the  consciousness  of  the  different  kinds  of  epilepsies  from  this 
point  of  view  will  doubtless  bring  to  light  some  interesting  infor- 
mation. There  is  much  to  be  done  for  the  epileptic  with  this  new 
method  of  approach. 

Epilepsy,  just  the  same,  may  occur  in  men  gifted  with  the 
sort  of  transcendent  ability  called  genius.  Mohammed,  Lord 
Byron,  Dostoyevsky,  Flaubert,  to  name  a  few  cases,  are 
famous  instances.    The  point  to  be  settled  is  whether  epileptic 


SOME  HISTORIC  PERSONAGES  245 

genius,  that  is  epilepsy  with  superior  ability,  occurs  most  often 
in  pituitocentrics,  the  epilepsy  being  symptomatic  of  a  pituitary 
struggling  against  barriers,  tugging  against  bonds.  As  mentioned, 
in  such  cases  epilepsy  appears  as  the  twin  brother  of  migraine  in 
genius.  Should  that  be  established,  we  should  have  more  evi- 
dence for  the  pituitary  dominance  of  most  specimens  of  intel- 
lectual power.  As  a  case  in  point  let  us  take  the  most  famous 
of  the  epileptic  geniuses — Julius  Caesar,  "When  the  fit  was  on  I 
marked  how  he  did  shake;  tis  true,  this  god  did  shake." 

According  to  Plutarch,  Julius  Caesar  was  of  slender  build,  fair- 
complexioned,  pale,  emaciated,  of  a  delicate  constitution  (remind- 
ing us  of  Darwin),  subject  to  severe  headache  and  violent  attacks 
of  epilepsy.  In  view  of  the  work  of  Cushing,  the  concurrence  of 
"severe  headache  and  violent  attacks  of  epilepsy"  is  sharply 
suggestive  of  a  pituitary  origin  for  both.  In  his  seventeenth  year 
he  was  already  engaged  to  be  married,  which  proves  his  precocity. 
An  overactive,  erratic  pituitary  could  here  also  be  held  respon- 
sible. Soon  after  he  was  proscribed  by  the  dictator  Sulla,  and 
the  first  of  a  series  of  epileptic  convulsions  is  recorded.  Shock 
tries  the  pituitary,  as  well  as  the  adrenals. 

His  sexual  libido  was  of  the  quality  that  stimulated  his  sol- 
diers to  sing  celebrations  of  his  exploits.  The  first  woman  he 
was  engaged  to  he  jilted.  Cornelia,  his  first  wife,  he  divorced  on 
the  ground  that  "Caesar's  wife  must  be  above  suspicion."  Matri- 
mony committed  twice  thereafter  landing  him  in  the  divorce 
court,  he  devoted  himself  to  liaisons,  one  with  Cleopatra.  This 
sexual  hyperactivity  was  probably  another  pituitary  trait. 

The  compound  of  intellectual  and  practical  ability  he  realized 
was  of  the  rarest.  It  meant  a  most  delicate  balance  between  his 
ante-pituitary,  post-pituitary,  adrenals  and  thyroid.  He  was  an 
orator,  politician,  historian,  conqueror,  and  statesman.  That  his 
thyroid  functioned  well  can  be  deduced  from  a  career  which 
involved  more  than  three  hundred  personal  triumphs  as  recog- 
nition from  his  native  city.  On  horseback,  riding  without  using 
his  hands,  he  would  often  dictate  to  two  or  three  secretaries 
at  once.  The  masculine  love  of  glory  and  ambition,  expression 
of  a  well-working  ante-pituitary,  was  combined  with  the  effem- 
inate echoes  of  an  equally  well-evolved  post-pituitary.  No  prima 
donna  was  more  concerned  with  the  care  of  her  skin,  complexion 
and  hair  than  he.  The  analogy  extends  even  to  superfluous  hair 
which  he  had  removed,  not  by  the  modern  electrolysis,  but  by 
depilation  with  forceps  and  main  force.    The  attendants  at  his 


246     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

bath  would  polish  his  epidermis,  for  his  satisfaction,  until  it 
resembled  alabaster  or  marble. 

Caesar  was  not  the  kind  of  great  man  that  Darwin  was,  and 
only  a  rather  muddled  careerist  because  he  had  too  much  adrenal 
and  post-pituitary.  But  he  was  pituitocentric  of  a  certain  type. 
We  possess  no  authentic  portraits  or  busts  of  him  to  go  bj .  But 
the  bust  in  the  Museum  of  Naples,  for  which  he  probably  sat 
(some,  H.  G.  Wells  among  them,  will  not  accept  this) ,  presents 
the  sort  of  face  that  is  often  seen  in  pituitary  epileptics,  and  the 
features  and  skull  of  a  pituitocentric:  long,  large,  well-modeled 
head  eyebrows  prominent,  with  tendency  to  meet,  aquiline  nose 
and  strong  chin. 

In  these  three,  Napoleon,  Nietzsche  and  Csesar,  we  have  male 
pituitocentrics,  exhibiting  diversities  of  life  and  tastes  because 
of  differences  in  the  co-working  endocrine  glands  in  their  make- 
up. We  shall  consider  now  a  female  pituitocentric  who  presents 
the  strangest  contrasts  in  physique,  physiognomy,  conduct  and 
character,  dependent  upon  a  variation  in  the  balance  between  the 
two  portions  of  his  pituitary. 

The  Legend  of  Florence  Nightingale 

All  biographies  consist  of  prevarications  and  all  autobiog- 
raphies of  lies.  That  summing  up  of  a  mass  of  literature  over 
which  industrious  students  have  ruined  their  eyes,  held  good  until 
after  the  War,  when  things  changed.  Then  Mr.  Lytton  Strachey, 
at  one  fell  blow,  and  with  one  magnificent  masterpiece,  hurdled 
the  old  idols  and  established  a  new  standard  of  deliberate  ac- 
curacy in  print.  In  his  "Eminent  Victorians"  he  set  the  pace 
for  the  host  of  those  who  have  been  stimulated  by  his  good 
example,  like  Lady  Margot  Asquith. 

Of  the  four  Victorian  respectable  worthies  Strachey  has  dis- 
sected as  ruthlessly  as  the  anatomist  a  post-mortem,  his  portrait 
of  Florence  Nightingale,  the  founder  of  the  modern  science  and 
art  of  nursing,  is  most  interesting  because  it  provides  data  of 
the  utmost  value  to  the  student  of  the  endocrine  basis  of  human 
personality.  In  the  conventional  two-volume  biography  of  this 
superwoman,  she  is  pictured  as  an  intellectual  saint,  stepped 
from  a  stained  glass  window  upon  her  wonderful  visit  to  a  clay- 
smeared  earth.  The  biographer,  presenting  all  the  ins  and  outs 
of  her  body  and  soul  as  he  has,  makes  her  live  before  us  with  a 
fresh  vitality  that  is  startling. 


SOME  HISTORIC  PERSONAGES  247 

The  species  of  life  Florence  Nightingale  lived,  involving  as  it 
did  struggle  with  a  masculine  world,  and  conquest  of  it,  implies 
the  existence  in  her  of  certain  masculine  traits  and  marks,  for 
the  normal  feminine  psyche  is  submissive  rather  than  aggressive 
toward  its  environment,  human  and  otherwise.  Belonging  to 
a  family  in  the  highest  circles,  it  was  upon  the  table  d'hote  of 
her  destiny  that  she  should  become  a  regulation  debutante, 
careeristina,  and  successful  wife  and  mother.  Instead,  she  chose 
to  question  the  whole  routine  of  the  life  of  her  class,  and  in  her 
diary  she  records  her  doubts  and  cravings,  and  her  revolt  against 
what  is  assumed  by  her  family  and  friends  to  be  the  normal 
course  of  existence  for  her.  The  attitudes  and  questionings  in 
these  passages,  the  religious  feeling  displayed,  are  distinctly  mas- 
culine. Most  easily  could  the  following,  for  instance,  pass  as 
having  been  written  by  a  man:  "I  desire  for  a  considerable  time 
only  to  lead  a  life  of  obscurity  and  toil,  for  the  purpose  of  allow- 
ing whatever  I  may  have  received  of  God  to  ripen,  and  turning 
it  some  day  to  the  glory  of  His  Name.  Nowadays  people  are  too 
much  in  a  hurry  both  to  produce  and  consume  themselves.  It  is 
only  in  retirement,  in  silence,  in  meditation  that  are  formed  the 
men  who  are  called  to  exercise  an  influence  upon  society."  In 
a  note-book  she  puts  May  7,  1852,  as  the  date  upon  which  she 
was  conscious  of  a  call  from  God  to  be  a  saviour.  Now  the  vast 
majority  of  women  who  have  remained  spinsters  at  32,  in  spite 
of  considerable  personal  attractions  and  high  natural  ability,  are 
visited  by  waves  of  emotional  fervor  for  a  de-personalization  of 
the  self.  But  in  the  case  of  the  subject,  as  Strachey  has  so  well 
shown,  the  call  was  pursued  with  a  self-willed,  pitiless,  unscrupu- 
lous determination,  worthy  of  Satan  himself  upon  the  most  fero- 
cious evil  bent.  In  its  pursuit  indeed  she  became  what  her  latest 
biographer  has  called  a  "woman  possessed  by  a  Demon."  All 
necessary,  not  alone  because  if  she  had  been  meek  and  mild  she 
would  have  existed  in  futility,  but  because  of  the  high  percentage 
of  the  masculine  endocrines  in  her  composition.  It  is  most  re- 
grettable that  we  have  no  statement  of  the  findings  of  a 
gynecologic  examination  of  her.  That  she  was  almost  con- 
sciously masculine  may  be  inferred  not  only  from  the  way  she 
bullied  Lord  Pannure  and  worked  to  death  her  dearest  friend 
with  the  angelic  temper,  Sidney  Herbert,  who  was  so  amiable  that 
he  could  be  driven  by  one  who  wrote:  "I  have  done  with  being 
amiable.  It  is  the  mother  of  all  mischief."  She  could  also  write, 
"I  attribute  my  success  to  this:  I  never  gave  or  took  an  excuse. 


248      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

Yes,  I  do  see  the  difference  now  between  me  and  other  men. 
When  a  disaster  happens,  I  act,  and  they  make  excuses." 

Lytton  Strachey  has  painted  superbly  all  this  in  his  essay. 
But  for  us  his  most  significant  passage  is  the  following:  "When 
old  age  actually  came,  something  curious  happened.  Destiny, 
having  waited  patiently,  played  a  queer  trick  upon  Miss  Night- 
ingale. The  benevolence  and  public  spirit  of  that  long  life  had 
only  been  equaled  by  its  acerbity.  Her  virtue  had  dwelt  in 
hardness,  and  she  had  poured  forth  her  unstinted  usefulness 
with  a  bitter  smile  upon  her  lips.  And  now  the  sacredness  of 
years  brought  the  proud  woman  her  punishment.  She  was  not 
to  die  as  she  had  lived.  The  sting  was  to  be  taken  out  of  her: 
she  was  to  be  made  soft;  she  was  to  be  reduced  to  compliance 
and  complacency.  The  change  came  gradually,  but  at  last  it 
was  unmistakable." 

"There  appeared  a  corresponding  alteration  in  her  physical 
mould.  The  thin,  angular  woman,  with  her  haughty  eye,  and  her 
acrid  mouth,  had  vanished,  and  in  her  place  was  the  rounded, 
bulky  form  of  a  fat  old  lady,  smiling  all  day  long.  Then  some- 
thing else  became  visible.  The  brain  which  had  been  steeled  at 
Scutari  was,  indeed,  literally  growing  soft.  Senility — an  ever 
more  and  more  amiable  senility — descended." 

We  have  here  an  absolutely  typical  pituitary  history,  with 
another  case  of  pituitocentric  natural  ability.  What  happens 
when  pituitary  hyperfunction  or  superiority  becomes  underfunc- 
tion  or  inferiority  is  precisely  as  Strachey  has  described  so  clev- 
erly of  the  "ministering  angel":  the  acrid,  thin  and  keen 
degenerate  every  time  into  the  amiable,  fat  and  dull.  Just  as 
Napoleon  was  transformed  by  the  mutations  of  his  pituitary,  so 
was  the  Saint  with  the  Lamp.  And  in  both  instances  the  con- 
trasting modifications,  from  one  extreme  of  glandular  function 
to  the  other,  supply  us  with  the  clue  to  the  secret  hand  of  their 
inner  being  and  becoming,  which  worked  upon  the  twists  and 
turns  of  circumstance  about  them  as  a  sculptor  upon  clay. 

The  official  biography  by  Sir  Edward  Cook  contains  three 
portraits,  representing  three  different  stages,  which  bear  out  the 
pituitocentric  thesis  of  her  personality  and  life  history.  One 
as  she  was  at  25,  and  pictured  by  Mrs.  Gaskell:  "She  is  tall; 
very  straight  and  willowy  in  figure;  thick  and  shortish  rich 
brown  hair;  very  delicate  complexion  .  .  .  perfect  teeth  .  .  . 
perfect  grace  and  lovely  appearance  .  .  .  she  is  so  like  a  saint." 
The  face  is  long  and  oval,  of  the  post-pituitary  kind.     Then 


SOME  HISTORIC  PERSONAGES  249 

gradually  the  ante-pituitary  gained  an  ascendency  in  the  concert 
of  her  internal  secretions,  so  coloring  her  life  with  its  masculine 
tints,  and  altering  her  face  as  well  as  her  disposition.  The  pho- 
tograph of  her  taken  when  she  was  38  shows  a  quadrangular 
outline,  and  all  the  acridity  that  impressed  Strachey.  The  Last 
picture  of  her,  a  water  color  drawing  made  in  1907,  shows  a  round 
visaged  old  dame,  who  might  be  the  peasant  grandmother  of  two 
dozen  descendants.  Little  patches  of  red  over  the  cheek  bones 
remind  one  of  myxedema  and  indicate  that  toward  the  very  end 
of  her  life  her  thyroid  failed  her  as  well  as  her  pituitary.  So 
that  our  biographer  relates:  "Then  by  Royal  Command,  the 
Order  of  Merit  was  brought  to  South  Street,  and  there  was  a 
little  ceremony  of  presentation.  Sir  Douglas  Dawson,  after  a 
short  speech,  stepped  forward  and  handed  the  order  of  the  in- 
signia to  Miss  Nightingale.  Propped  up  by  pillows,  she  dimly 
recognized  that  some  compliment  was  being  paid  her.  'Too  kind 
— too  kind!'  she  murmured;  and  she  was  not  ironical."  In  the 
days  of  pituitary  and  thyroid  hyperfunction  we  may  be  sure  she 
would  have  been  caustically  and  penetratingly  ironical. 

The  Explanation  of  Oscar  Wilde 

The  case  of  Oscar  Wilde,  as  one  of  the  high  tragedies  of  English 
Literature  and  Life,  attracted  the  attention  of  the  whole  world 
in  its  heyday,  and  even  today  evokes  controversy.  As  a  literary 
figure  and  artist,  the  poet  of  the  Portrait  of  Dorian  Gray,  and 
"De  Profundis,"  belongs  without  a  doubt  to  the  immortals.  As 
a  convicted  criminal,  who  served  for  two  years  at  hard  labor  in 
Reading  jail,  and  afterwards,  a  prey  to  chronic  alcoholism,  died 
in  obscurity  in  Paris,  he  still  remains  a  subject  of  whispered  con- 
versation in  private,  and  his  crime  a  taboo  to  the  public,  men- 
tionable  only  at  the  risk  of  arousing  the  terrible  odium  sexicum 
of  the  prurient  majority.  Oscar  Wilde  was  a  homosexual  of  a 
certain  type.  In  view  of  the  previously  laid  down  considerations 
concerning  the  endocrine  genesis  of  homosexuality,  how  are  we 
to  explain  him,  and  his  natural  history? 

As  with  the  other  exemplars  of  genius  examined  we  need  here, 
too,  to  gain  some  insight  into  his  "internal  secretion  heredity." 
His  father,  Sir  William  Wilde,  was  a  surgeon.  Photographs  of 
him  show  the  long  and  broad  face  of  a  pituito-adrenal  centered 
individual,  with  a  corresponding  duplex  incarnation  in  the  face, 
the  upper  half  strikingly  spiritual,  the  lower  curiously  animal. 


250     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

He  was  active,  practical  and  eminently  successful.  His  wife  re- 
calls Florence  Nightingale,  in  face,  figure  and  conduct  (people 
who  are  built  alike  as  regards  their  internal  secretions  are  those 
whom  we  recognize  as  similar  physically  and  psychically) .  She, 
too,  was  a  pituito-adrenal,  and  in  so  far  resembled  her  husband. 
But  as  in  a  woman  ante-pituitary  and  adrenal  superiority  make 
for  masculinity,  she  must  be  classed  as  a  masculinoid  type  of 
woman.  She  was  socially  aggressive,  and  took  part  in  the  revo- 
lutionary movement  of  her  time  in  Ireland.  Thus  we  find  that 
Oscar  Wilde  was  the  result  of  a  mating  of  internal  secretions 
acting  in  the  same  direction.  The  process  might  be  compared 
to  parthenogenesis. 

It  is  on  record  that  when  enceinte  his  mother  often  expressed 
the  wish  that  her  child  be  a  girl.  When  a  boy  was  born,  she 
was  immensely  disappointed.  To  compensate  for  her  disappoint- 
ment, she  brought  him  up  a  good  deal  like  a  little  girl.  She  had 
him  dressed  in  girls'  clothes  at  an  age  when  most  boys  are  violent 
destroyers  of  clothing.  She  would  hang  massive  jewelry  upon 
him,  for  the  delight  of  playing  with  the  resultant  stage  picture 
as  a  satisfaction  for  her  discontented  desires.  In  the  light  of 
modern  psychology,  and  our  formulization  of  her  endocrine 
status,  we  must  put  down  her  conduct  to  a  suppressed  homo- 
sexual craving.  Had  her  son  been  built  along  the  lines  of  strong 
emphatic  masculinity,  her  influence,  though  vicious,  would  prob- 
ably have  found  no  congenial  soil,  and  would  have  died  out  alto- 
gether after  his  contacts  with  the  outer  world,  beginning  with 
school.  No  matter  how  she  would  have  conditioned  his  vege- 
tative system  temporarily,  his  internal  secretions,  released  then 
from  compression,  would  have  asserted  themselves  and  deter- 
mined his  fate  differently.  However,  it  is  quite  possible  that  if 
such  had  been  the  case  Oscar  Wilde,  the  aesthete,  the  paradoxer, 
the  disciple  of  Walter  Pater  and  Baudelaire,  would  have  stayed 
in  the  land  of  the  to  be  born.  I  mean  that  then  we  would  not 
have  had  Oscar  Wilde,  but  another  person,  genius  or  common- 
place, who  also  might  have  borne  the  name  of  Oscar  Wilde. 

That  was  not  to  be.  The  singular  assortment  of  endocrines 
that  mingled  their  activities  to  make  Oscar  Wilde  shaped  a  per- 
sonality which  we  must  classify  as  the  thymocentric  (thymus- 
centered).  Why  this  should  be  so  is  an  interesting  question. 
Pituito-adrenal  plus  pituito-adrenal  of  his  heredity  should  make 
two  pituito-adrenals  according  to  elementary  arithmetic  and  the 
rule  of  three.    A  cancellation  of  the  two  factors  of  the  equation 


SOME  HISTORIC  PERSONAGES  251 

rather  than  addition  seems  to  have  occurred.  The  result  was  a 
persistent  thymus  superiority,  with  an  instability  of  the  other 
two  main  glands  involved. 

How  do  we  know  that  Oscar  Wilde  was  a  thymocentric?  Be- 
cause in  his  fullest  development  he  exhibited  all  the  earmarks 
of  the  thymus  pattern.  We  possess  a  number  of  good  pictures 
and  descriptions  of  him,  as  he  was  really  a  contemporary,  and 
would  probably  be  alive  today  if  he  had  been  put  in  a  hospital 
for  proper  treatment  instead  of  in  prison.  An  excellent  descrip- 
tion is  that  of  Henri  de  Regnier's:  "This  foreigner  (Wilde)  was 
tall,  and  of  great  corpulence.  A  high  complexion  seemed  to  give 
still  greater  width  to  his  clean  shaven  face.  It  was  the  unbearded 
(glabre)  face  that  one  sees  on  coins.  The  hands  .  .  .  were  rather 
fleshy  and  plump."  The  points  of  immediate  interest  are  the 
height,  the  complexion  and  the  beardlessness.  One  classic  variety 
of  the  thymocentric  is  tall,  has  a  baby's  skin,  and  has  little  or  no 
hair  on  the  face.  A  passage  from  a  narrative  written  by  one  of 
his  warders  confirms  the  last  condition  decidedly.  "Before  leav- 
ing his  cell  to  see  a  visitor,  he  was  alway  careful  to  conceal,  as 
far  as  possible,  his  unshaven  chin  by  means  of  his  red  handker- 
chief." Bristles  on  the  chin,  with  little  or  none  on  the  cheeks,  is 
the  inference.  It  is  important  to  stress  the  thymocentric  sig- 
nificance of  this  glabrosity  of  the  face.  Another  sign  to  be  put 
in  italics  was  the  quality  of  his  voice.  It  has  been  described  as 
a  beautiful  tenor,  when  he  had  it  under  perfect  control,  and 
high  pitched  and  strident  when  under  the  influence  of  passion  or 
temper.  Such  a  voice  would  be  the  product  of  a  larynx  remain- 
ing partly  or  completely  in  the  infantile  state,  as  in  a  woman's. 
That,  and  the  large  breasts  he  is  said  to  have  had,  point  again 
to  the  thymus-centered  constitution.  All  in  all,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  Oscar  Wilde  was  a  case  of  status  lymphaticus,  the 
technical  name  for  the  thymus-centered  personality. 

As  happens  in  a  number  of  thymocentrics,  his  pituitary  must 
have  attempted  to  compensate  for  the  endocrine  deficiencies  al- 
ways present  in  them.  The  exceptional  size  of  his  head  was  a 
pituitary  trait.  Finding,  possibly  making,  plenty  of  room  for 
itself  to  grow,  for  some  unknown  reason,  in  an  extraordinary 
fashion,  it  reinforced  the  love  of  the  beautiful  that  is  part  of  the 
feminine  post-pituitary  nature,  with  an  intellectual  ability  and 
maturity  that  was  at  first  all-conquering.  In  the  face  of  a 
society  organized  for  pure  masculine  and  pure  feminine  types, 
disgrace  and  disaster  at  last  overtook  him,  with  almost  the  ruth- 


252     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

lessness  of  natural  selection  wiping  out  an  unadapted  sport  sud- 
denly cropping  up  in  an  environment.  In  prison  he  suffered  from 
severe  splitting  headaches,  which  were  probably  due  to  changes 
in  his  pituitary.  Described  as  being  directly  over  the  eyes,  they 
haunted  him  until  his  death,  and  may  have  had  a  good  deal  to 
do  with  the  absinthe  addiction  he  acquired. 

The  Treatment  of  Genius 

The  problem  of  Oscar  Wilde  raises  an  ethical  question  that 
still  remains  to  be  finally  answered.  Granting  that  all  of  society 
should  one  day  see  him  and  his  kind  as  a  peculiar  and  specific 
constitutional  product  of  an  odd  intermixture  of  internal  secre- 
tions, what  should  be  done  with  him  and  them?  It  is  easy  to 
play  with  words  like  "degenerates."  But  still,  we  do  not  condemn 
imbeciles,  idiots  or  defectives,  or  other  substandard,  subnormal 
creatures  to  the  prisons.  For  the  sake  of  the  good  opinion 
society  would  maintain  of  itself,  it  sends  the  latter  nowadays  to 
hospitals,  sanitaria,  or  their  equivalents,  where  protection  for 
itself  without  punishment  for  them  may  be  practised.  But  is 
confinement,  or  even  treatment  the  solution?  For  we  have  to 
consider  what  society  would  lose  by  cutting  such  abnormals  off 
from  itself,  and  them  from  its  stimulations.  A  number  of  artists 
have  been  built  like  Oscar  Wilde,  musicians  in  particular.  With- 
out them,  would  there  not  be  a  great  gap,  a  yawning  absence, 
in  the  world's  culture? 

Modern  diagnosis  and  modern  therapy  might  have  done  a 
great  deal  for  Napoleon,  Nietzsche,  Julius  Caesar,  Florence  Night- 
ingale, Oscar  Wilde.  Were  they  alive  today,  and  willing  to  sub- 
mit themselves  to  scientific  scrutiny,  the  X-ray  would  tell  us 
of  the  state  of  the  pituitary  and  thymus  in  them,  chemical  ex- 
aminations of  the  blood  the  condition  of  the  thyroid  and  adrenals, 
detailed  investigation  of  the  body  and  mind  a  flood  of  light  upon 
their  maladies  as  well  as  their  personalities.  Therapy  might 
have  relieved  Napoleon  of  his  attacks,  and  so,  halting  the  creep- 
ing degeneration  of  his  pituitary,  made  Waterloo  impossible.  But 
then,  would  we  have  had  the  Emperor  at  all?  Would  there  have 
been  enough  of  that  instability  that  drives  on  the  genius  to  his 
goal?  Nietzsche  might  have  been  relieved  of  his  headaches,  and 
Caesar  of  his  epilepsy — but  then,  would  not — with  correction  of 
the  underlying  streams  of  activity  on  the  part  of  the  other 
glands  of  the  internal  secretion  to  compensate — their  peculiar 


SOME  HISTORIC  PERSONAGES  253 

superiority  and  distinction,  and  the  fruits  of  their  lives  as  by- 
products, have  been  destroyed.  Florence  Nightingale,  too,  might 
have  been  a  softer  and  more  human  person.  But  then  would  she 
have  revolutionized  the  practice  of  nursing?  Oscar  Wilde  pos- 
sibly might  have  been  made  over  into  a  heterosexual.  But  then 
would  not  the  world  be  the  poorer  without  "De  Profundis,"  let 
us  ask?  To  state  the  problem  in  the  most  general  terms:  how 
much  abnormality  are  we  to  tolerate  (I  speak,  of  course,  of 
malignant  abnormality,  and  disregard  benign  abnormality  alto- 
gether) for  the  sake  of  the  valuable  that  is  concomitant?  How 
much  are  we  to  stand  of  that  which  degrades  the  germ-plasm 
while  it  raises  the  mind-plasm  of  the  race?  The  Flowers  of 
Evil.  Destroy  or  modify  the  roots,  change  the  seed,  and  the 
buds  will  bloom,  if  at  all,  not  orchids,  but  dull  brown  common- 
places. 

What  means  may  be  licensed  for  the  attainment  of  a  worthy 
end  is  perhaps  the  broadest  aspect  of  the  problem.  The  instru- 
ments of  Man's  ascent  to  divinity  may  arouse  his  instinctive 
repulsions,  dislikes,  and  destructive  passions.  The  study  of  the 
internal  secretions  is  putting  and  will  put  the  most  powerful 
apparatus  for  the  control  of  the  abnormal  into  our  hands.  What 
are  we  going  to  do  with  them? 

It  does  not  follow  that  because  we  are  beginning  to  under- 
stand the  normal  that  we  are  to  establish  one  fixed  absolute 
standard  of  the  normal.  In  view  of  all  the  possible  mixtures, 
permutations  and  combinations  of  the  endocrine  glands,  that  may 
construct  an  individual,  it  is  possible  to  conceive  a  million  types 
of  normals.  For  normality  means  harmony,  the  harmonious 
equilibrium  between  the  hormones,  which  tends  to  continue  itself, 
because  it  does  no  harm  to  itself.  So  there  are  all  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  men  and  women  who  are  classed  as  normals.  We  need 
create  no  inquiry  into  the  value  of  raising  the  subnormal  to  the 
normal  level.  It  is  when  we  come  to  consider  the  possibility  of 
lowering  the  supernormal  (in  certain  respects)  to  the  normal, 
that  we  pause  and  hesitate.  Traditional  morality  assists  not,  but 
hinders  us  here. 

Whatever  the  race  may  ultimately  decide,  it  is  safe  to  predict 
that  it  is  now  somewhat  possible,  and  will  become  more  and 
more  possible,  to  regulate  or  even  check  the  ills  of  genius,  with- 
out interfering  with  its  highest  evolution  and  expression.  For 
example,  Bernard  Shaw,  to  take  a  living  man  of  genius,  is  pretty 
visibly  a  pituitocentric  of  the  well-balanced  variety.     He  has 


254      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

the  height,  the  facial  features,  the  hands,  and  the  sort  of  men- 
tality that  run  together  in  his  endocrine  make-up.  He  also  has 
the  headaches.  It  is  quite  probable  that  feeding  him  pituitary- 
gland  extract  in  the  proper  dosage  would  relieve  him  of  his  head- 
aches. A  process  might  be  started  in  his  pituitary,  however, 
that  would  diminish  its  extraordinary  output  which  has  assisted 
to  make  his  brain  so  brilliant.  The  possibility,  nevertheless,  is 
excessively  remote  as  the  pituitary  predominance  in  him  is  so 
overwhelming,  that  nothing  short  of  surgery,  nature's  or  the 
medical  graduate's,  could  really  affect  that  overmastering  emi- 
nence. The  time  will  come,  though  it  is  not  yet  by  a  long,  long 
road,  when  we  shall  be  able  to  intervene,  and  perhaps  meddle, 
in  nature's  most  intimate  plans.  The  right  of  the  power  to 
modify,  like  the  power  to  kill,  will  be  defined  and  limited  by 
common  agreement  before  that  goal  will  be  reached. 


CHAPTER  XII 

APPLICATIONS  AND  POSSIBILITIES 

The  knowledge  that  the  shape  and  action  of  a  man's  body  as 
well  as  his  mind  depend  on  the  internal  secretions  inspires  the 
hope  of  the  emergence  of  a  hitherto  inconceivable  controlling 
power  over  human  life  in  the  future.  For  in  the  wake  of  chemical 
discovery  there  has  always  come  chemical  control.  The  nature 
of  chemical  research,  the  necessity  for  clear  thinking,  accurate 
measurement,  and  experience  in  the  actual  handling  of  materials, 
the  fundamental  tradition  and  technique  of  the  science,  have 
made  and  will  make  the  practical  applications  about  which  we 
today  may  only  speculate.  What  the  study  of  the  internal  secre- 
tions suffers  from,  at  the  beginning  of  the  third  decade  of  the 
twentieth  century,  is  insufficient  appreciation  of  its  meaning  for 
mankind.  It  is  true  that  there  are  thousands  of  workers  scat- 
tered throughout  the  world  contributing  their  mites  to  the  general 
store.  They  increase  yearly,  almost  daily,  and  their  achieve- 
ments, in  spite  of  an  uncritical  enthusiasm  in  some  quarters  and 
a  semi-charlatanism  in  others,  have  been  and  continue  magnifi- 
cent. But  they  are  pecking  at  a  mountain  which  requires 
organized,  massive,  engineering  organization  for  its  blasting. 

The  crying  need  is  for  an  international  institute,  endowed  and 
equipped  for  investigation  upon  the  proper  scale,  with  all  the 
available  appliances  and  methods  already  worked  out  and  at 
hand.  Such  an  institution  would  possess  the  right  chemical 
laboratories  for  the  making  of  blood  analyses,  metabolism  ex- 
aminations, and  tests  of  endocrine  functions.  There  would  be 
X-ray  machines  and  experts  to  radiograph  the  pituitary,  pineal 
and  thymus  glands  when  possible.  There  would  be  psychologists 
to  carry  out  intelligence  tests,  determine  emotional  reactions,  and 
group  mental  aberrations,  deficiencies  and  defectives.  There 
would  be  statisticians,  trained  in  biometrics,  to  criticize  and  com- 
pare data  obtained.  There  would  be  anthropoligists  to  note  and 
measure  variations  in  angles  and  curves,  ratios  and  quotients  of 
the  external  conformation  of  the  body.    Internists  would  record 

255 


256      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

the  history  and  status  of  the  organs  and  viscera.  There  would  be 
librarians  to  collect,  abstract  and  collate  the  vast,  accumulating 
literature.  In  short,  the  mystery  of  personality,  the  most  mar- 
velous, complex,  and  variable  process  in  the  universe,  would  be 
attacked  and  at  length  penetrated  systematically  and  persis- 
tently, with  the  ideal  of  absolute  control  of  its  composition  as 
the  goal  in  view. 

The  nature  of  the  researches?  They  would  be  infinite  in  their 
variety  and  significance.  Their  practical  by-products,  dropped 
in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  by  the  scientist,  as  Atalanta's  lover 
the  golden  apples  in  his  race,  to  assuage  the  scent  of  the  hard- 
headed  business  man,  would  be  profitable  enough  for  any  country 
in  peace  or  war,  to  pay  for  itself  ten  times  over  and  at  compound 
interest.  A  volume  could  be  filled  with  suggestions  for  interest- 
ing and  promising  investigations.  But  we  may  glance  at  some 
of  the  immediately  useful  aspects  that  might  exercise  those  con- 
cerned with  the  everyday  life  of  men,  women  and  children. 

The  Endocrine  Epochs  of  Life 

There  is  no  more  famous  classifications  of  the  epochs  of  life 
that  mark  off  the  milestones  of  the  individual's  evolution  than 
Shakespeare's  Seven  Ages.  So  different  is  he  at  those  different 
stages  of  his  development,  so  changed  his  body  and  mind  that 
it  has  become  a  part  of  popular  physiology  that  we  are  entirely 
made  over  every  seven  years,  and  that  no  cell  in  the  organism 
lasts  longer  than  that.  The  tradition  certainly  does  not  apply 
to  the  brain  and  nervous  system,  for  the  number  of  brain  cells 
is  fixed  at  birth,  and  cannot  be  increased,  only  decreased,  because 
they  are  too  highly  specialized  to  reproduce  themselves. 

What  transfigures  the  individual  as  the  years  go  by  is  no  simple 
wear  and  tear  of  the  tissues,  nor  the  replacement  of  old  cells  by 
new.  It  is  the  rearrangement  of  relationships  among  the  ductless 
glands,  the  shifting  of  influences  from  the  predominant  to  the 
subordinate,  and  vice  versa,  in  the  constellation  of  the  internal 
secretions,  that  determines  the  unfolding  of  the  personality.  The 
transformations  raise  doubt  sometimes  as  to  the  reality  of  per- 
sonal identity.  What  actually  happens  in  the  changes  from  child- 
hood to  adolescence,  from  adolescence  to  maturity,  and  so  on,  is 
the  sloughing  of  one  internal  glandular  dominance  for  another. 

Growth,  as  a  general  name  for  the  mutations,  the  ensemble  of 
somatic  and  psychic  differentiation,  from  year  to  year,  passes 


APPLICATIONS  AND  POSSIBILITIES  257 

through  five  epochs  that  arc  standard  for  the  normal.  The  normal 
is  the  being  who  harmonizes  with  his  environment,  and  yet  reacts 
with  it  because  of  recurring  needs  within  him.  His  endocrine 
equation  settles  what  is  unique  and  different  in  him.  But  the 
gland  which  flourishes  during  the  epoch  as  its  time  of  triumph, 
when  it  has  its  day,  determines  what  makes  him  like  his  fellows. 
From  this  point  of  view  it  becomes  permissible  to  speak  of  the 
five  Endocrine  Epochs.  Similarities  and  resemblances  of  mind 
and  body  between  people  at  a  given  period  of  life,  childhood, 
youth,  maturity  must  be  put  down  to  their  common  government 
by  the  salient  endocrine  of  the  epoch.    So  one  may  list: 

Infancy  as  the  epoch  of  the  thymus 

Childhood  as  the  epoch  of  the  pineal 

Adolescence  as  the  epoch  of  whatever  gland  is  left  in  control  as  the 

result  of  the  life  struggle 
Senility  as  the  epoch  of  general  endocrine  deficiency. 

Infancy  as  the  epoch  of  the  thymus  explains  why,  in  any  given 
geographic  locality,  the  babies  look  alike  and  act  alike.  Special- 
ists in  the  observation  and  treatment  of  infants  have  noted  that 
not  until  after  the  second  year  is  any  tendency  to  differentiation 
discernible  to  any  extent  among  them.  It  is  only  after  the  second 
year,  or  somewhere  around  that  time,  that  the  child  begins  to 
individuate,  and  distinct  individual  traits  and  a  personality 
manifest  their  outlines.  The  thymus  is  the  great  inhibitor  of  all 
the  glands  of  internal  secretion.  By  its  checking  activity  upon 
the  other  members  of  the  endocrine  system,  the  thyroid  and 
pituitary  in  particular,  it  gives  the  baby  time  to  grow  in  bulk, 
which  is  its  chief  business  during  the  first  two  years  of  its 
existence.  It  quadruples  its  birth  weight.  The  brain  and  nervous 
system  complete  their  growth  in  mass  by  the  end  of  the  fourth 
year.  Recall  the  experiments  of  Gudernatsch  working  with  tad- 
poles, who  showed  that  feeding  with  thymus  produced  giant 
tadpoles  whose  metamorphosis  into  frogs  was  inhibited,  while 
feeding  thyroid  produced  frogs  the  size  of  flies.  Differentiation 
occurred  without  the  preliminary  increase  in  mass  usual.  As 
differentiation  and  bulk  thus  appear  antagonistic,  at  least  at  the 
beginning  of  growth,  the  function  of  the  thymus,  at  a  maximum 
during  infancy,  seems  then  to  be  to  restrain  the  differentiating 
endocrines,  until  sufficient  material  has  been  accumulated  by 
the  organism  upon  which  the  differentiating  process  may  work. 

After  the  second  year,  the  thymus  begins  to  shrink.    That  is 


258      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

to  say,  officially  its  involution  begins.  Careful  dissection  will 
demonstrate  some  thymus  tissue  even  in  a  normal  subject  up  to 
the  fourteenth  year.  This  refers  to  the  average  normal,  for  the 
large  thymus  may  continue  large  and  grow  larger  after  the 
second  year  in  the  type  of  individual  designated  in  a  preceding 
chapter  as  the  thymocentric. 

If  the  thymus  retrogresses  after  the  second  year,  what  takes 
its  place  as  a  brake  upon  the  forward  driving  impulses  of  the 
other  endocrines?  We  have  every  reason  for  assigning  that  role 
to  the  pineal.  It  performs  its  service  mainly,  in  all  probability, 
by  inhibiting  the  sex  stimulating  effect  of  light  playing  upon  the 
skin.  Since  it  is  especially  a  sex  gland  inhibitor,  the  thyroid  and 
pituitary  become  freer  to  exert  their  influences  than  under  the 
thymus  regime.  And  so  we  find  that  it  is  after  the  second  year 
that  thyroid  and  pituitary  tendencies  manifest  their  effects. 
The  Pineal  Era,  from  the  second  to  the  tenth  to  fourteenth 
years,  remains  to  be  investigated  from  a  number  of  viewpoints 
interesting  to  the  parent,  the  educator,  and  the  student  of  pueri- 
culture.  Precocity  is  directly  related  to  early  involution  of  the 
pineal.  For  just  as  the  thymus  involutes  at  the  second  year,  the 
pineal  atrophies  before  the  onset  of  adolescence. 

Adolescence  is  the  period  of  stress  and  strain  throughout  the 
somatic  and  psychic  organism  because  of  the  volcanic  upheavals 
in  the  sex  glands.  The  history  of  the  individual  is  dominated  by 
them  up  to  twenty-five  or  so,  when  maturity  commences  in  the 
sense  of  a  relative  sex  stability.  They  continue  to  exert  a  power- 
ful pressure  throughout  maturity.  But  life  episodes  and  crises, 
diseases,  accidents,  and  struggles,  experiences  of  pleasure  and 
pain,  as  well  as  climatic  factors,  settle  finally  which  endocrine  or 
endocrines  are  left  in  control  as  a  consequence  of  the  series  of 
reactions  the  period  of  maturity  may  be  analyzed  into. 

The  Interpretation  of  Senility 

Senility  inevitably  follows  maturity,  not  as  night  follows  day 
by  a  mathematical  necessity,  but  because  of  the  process  of  de- 
generation which  ultimately  overtakes  all  the  glands  of  internal 
secretion,  dominant  as  well  as  subordinate.  Just  why  the  degen- 
eration must  occur  no  one  can  say.  Injury  to  the  endocrine 
organs  of  one  sort  or  another,  ranging  all  the  way  from  emotional 
exhaustion  to  bacterial  infection,  is  the  reason  usually  considered 
sufficient.    Just  why  recuperation  and  regeneration  do  not  pre- 


APPLICATIONS  AND  POSSIBILITIES  259 

serve  them  in  the  elderly  as  they  do  in  youth  is  a  problem  to 
be  solved  when  we  understand  the  laws  of  regeneration,  at  present 
almost  totally  beyond  our  control.  Some  say  that  it  is  a  matter 
of  the  wear  and  tear  of  our  blood  vessels,  those  rubber-like  tubes 
which  transport  food  and  drainage  with  nonchalant  equanimity 
to  all  cells  as  long  as  they  last.  In  the  classic  phrase:  a  man 
is  as  old  as  his  arteries,  ergo  his  ductless  glands  will  be  as  old 
as  their  arteries.  And  the  age  of  arteries  is  simply  a  matter  of 
wear  and  tear,  the  resultant  of  the  function  which  is  universal 
among  molecules.  Arteriosclerosis,  the  hardening  of  arteries, 
might  be  the  whole  story. 

But  there  are  certain  experiments  and  considerations  which 
rather  confute  that  easy  explanation,  or  at  least  make  clear  that 
the  mystery  is  not  so  simple.  The  work  of  Steinach,  a  Viennese 
investigator,  has  contributed  most  to  the  elucidation  of  the  non- 
arterial  factor  in  senility.  No  one  has  asserted  more  loudly  the 
importance  of  the  interstitial  cells  that  fill  in  the  spaces  between 
the  tubules  of  the  testes  in  the  male,  and  the  follicles  of  the  ovary 
in  females.  Rats  have  been  his  medium  of  study,  for  they  are 
most  easily  procurable,  live  fastest,  breed,  and  withstand  experi- 
mental and  operative  procedures  better  than  any  other  animal. 

An  old  rat  is  like  an  old  man  in  his  dotage.  His  bald,  shriv- 
elled skin  covers  an  emaciated  body.  His  eyes  are  dimmed  by 
cataracts  and  his  breathing  is  labored  and  difficult  because  his 
heart  muscle  has  lost  its  tone.  Huddled  in  a  corner,  life  to  him 
has  become  concentrated  into  the  desire  for  a  little  food,  and 
immobility.  If  now,  something  is  done  to  his  sex  apparatus,  a 
marvelous  transformation  may  be  effected.  That  something  no 
one  could  predict.  It  consists  in  slitting  the  genital  duct,  which 
leads  from  the  germinal  cells  to  the  exterior.  After  the  operation, 
the  germinal  cells,  which  grow  into  the  spermatozoa,  atrophy  and 
disappear,  since  they  can  no  longer  function.  As  if  released  from 
some  restraint,  the  interstitial  cells,  however,  multiply  enor- 
mously. With  their  multiplication,  the  miracle  of  rejuvenation 
is  performed. 

After  some  weeks  the  sluggish  currents  of  being  in  the  rat, 
which  had  slowed  down  as  a  preliminary  to  stopping  altogether, 
flow  fast  and  furious.  Waves  of  new  chemical  substances  inun- 
date his  cells.  And  they  respond  like  the  fields  that  border  the 
Nile  after  the  annual  flood.  All  his  tissues,  skin,  muscle,  nerve, 
even  bone,  are  restored.  A  vitality  is  created  which  makes  him 
bound  and  dart  like  a  youth  of  his  species.    In  due  time,  though, 


260     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

senility  returns.  It  is  as  if  a  storage  battery,  recharged,  runs 
down  and  becomes  dead  again.  Slitting  the  genital  duct  of  the 
other  testis,  causing  its  interstitial  cells  to  hypertrophy  and  mul- 
tiply, repeats  the  effects  of  the  first  experiment.  The  organism 
responds  again  to  the  new  waves  of  vitality  that  vibrate  through 
it.  That  it  is  recharged  is  demonstrated  again  by  a  revival  of 
sex  appetite  and  sex  activity.  The  female  which  had  become  an 
object  of  indifference  is  reinstated  as  a  creature  to  be  sought  and 
pursued.  The  second  period  ends  in  its  turn.  And  now  entirely 
new  interstitial  glands,  in  the  form  of  fresh  testes  removed  from 
a  young  animal,  are  transplanted  into  the  body  of  the  old  rat. 
Once  more  youth  returns.  But  now  it  burns  itself  more  quickly 
than  even  before.  An  acute  exhaustion  of  the  mind  appears 
first.  Then  all  the  other  phenomena  of  old  age  steal  back  upon 
the  old  rat,  and  senility,  firmly  established  in  the  saddle,  rides 
him  to  the  end. 

The  Possibilities  of  Rejuvenation 

Whatever  other  deductions  may  be  extracted  from  these  experi- 
ments, they  prove  beyond  a  doubt  the  existence  of  an  endocrine 
factor  in  the  process  of  aging,  as  well  as  an  arterial.  They  also 
demonstrate  that  the  internal  secretion  of  the  sex  glands,  well 
advertised  as  it  has  been  as  the  Elixir  of  Youth  that  Ponce  de 
Leon,  and  Brown-Sequard  with  so  many  others,  pursued  in  vain, 
is  not  the  whole  story.  For  if  it  was,  the  duration  of  the  new 
youth  should  be  another  span  of  life,  whereas  in  actuality  it  is 
only  a  fraction  of  that  time.  This  fact,  together  with  a  number 
of  others,  make  clear  that  while  the  gonads  may  be  the  jeune 
premier  of  the  drama,  the  vitality  of  the  plot  depends  upon  the 
other  endocrines.  Since  old  age  is  an  exhaustion,  permanent  and 
irreparable  of  all  the  members  of  the  ductless  gland  directorate, 
the  reason  becomes  clear  for  the  temporary  quality  of  the  re- 
juvenation effected  by  the  procedures  of  Steinach. 

Practically,  then,  the  question  at  once  arises:  which  of  the 
glands  in  particular  are  involved?  There  is  first  that  ubiquitous 
agent  in  the  system,  the  thyroid.  Chemical  analysis  of  it  has 
shown  that  the  iodine  content  decreases  with  the  age  of  the 
individual,  and  becomes  specially  low  after  forty.  It  is  after 
the  menopause  in  women  that  myxedema,  the  disease  of  com- 
plete degeneration  of  the  thyroid,  and  of  the  physical  and  mental 
faculties,  is  most  frequent.    The  thyroid  of  old  people  exhibits, 


APPLICATIONS  AND  POSSIBILITIES  261 

in  varying  degrees,  signs  of  a  similar  degeneration.  Thyroid 
feeding,  properly  controlled,  will  clear  up  certain  of  the  deteriora- 
tions of  mind  and  body  observable  in  the  aged.  The  grossness 
of  the  features  lessens,  a  number  of  the  pains  go,  muscular  en- 
durance increases,  memory  and  intelligence  do  not  remind  one  so 
forcibly  of  the  old  dotard  in  his  second  childhood.  Of  course  the 
improvement  at  present  achievable  is  only  relative.  But  in  the 
prematurely  aging,  decay  invading  a  half  accomplished  maturity, 
marvels  have  been  achieved  at  times  with  feeding  of  the  gland. 

The  pituitary,  too,  begins  to  retrogress  after  the  period  of  ma- 
turity. And  an  early  retrogression  means  a  short  maturity.  In 
women,  the  onset  of  an  obesity,  and  coincidently,  of  a  lazy  and 
dull  morale,  coincides  with  this  declension  of  the  pituitary  powers. 
All  the  glands  of  internal  secretion,  in  fact,  shrink  and  shrivel 
as  old  age  advances.  Only,  as  in  other  relationships,  the  pre- 
dominating endocrine  stamps  its  signature  more  visibly  upon  the 
documents  of  decadence  than  the  others.  Pituitary  types,  as  said, 
get  fat  and  slow,  thyroidal  become  bulky  and  stupid  or  thin 
and  sour,  the  adrenal  dark,  shrunken  and  forever  tired  of  life. 
So  type  emerges,  even  in  all-around  glandular  deficiency. 

The  problem  of  rejuvenation  is  the  problem  of  recharging,  or 
replacing  all  of  the  glands  of  internal  secretion,  at  least  the  most 
important,  the  thyroid,  the  pituitary  and  the  adrenals,  as  well 
as  the  gonads.  Longevity  is  perhaps  largely  a  matter  of  pre- 
venting, or  postponing  their  wane.  Beside,  there  is  the  prophy- 
laxis of  bacterial  infections,  and  their  all  embracing  corrosions 
— which,  too,  have  an  endocrine  aspect. 

Persistence  of  youth  or  juvenility  may  be  manufactured  by 
nature  in  two  ways.  There  may  be  a  persistence  of  early  glandu- 
lar predominances.  We  have  seen  what  happens  to  the  thymo- 
centric.  That  a  pineal-centered  juvenile  or  infantile  type  exists 
may  be  safely  predicted.  Nature's  only  other  mode  of  securing 
perpetual  youth  seems  to  be  by  prolonging  the  time  allotted  to 
the  sex  gland  crescendo. 

As  for  the  golden  age  of  maturity  itself,  what  humdrum  people 
and  poets  have  despised  as  middle  age,  the  margin  of  reserve  of 
the  ruling  hormone  is  a  quantity  almost  malleable  in  our  hands, 
but  still  to  be  regarded  with  respect  as  a  hard  cold  proposition 
by  the  physiologist.  In  general,  the  continuance  of  any  stage  of 
development  means  the  maintaining  of  the  glandular  adminis- 
tration peculiar  to  it.  So  the  chubby  debonair  irresponsible 
whom  nothing  can  touch  is  happy  in  the  possession  of  a  pineal 


262      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

uncormpted  by  the  years,  while  the  genius  who  can  turn  out 
his  best  work  at  sixty-five  must  thank  his  pituitary  for  standing 
by  him  to  the  end. 

The  Science  of  Puericulture 

There  is  a  specialty  now  growing  in  the  womb  of  science  which 
in  its  own  good  time  will  come  to  fruition  as  the  study  of  the 
child's  needs  or  puericulture.  Even  today  there  exists  a  scientific 
basis  for  the  formulation  of  the  principles  upon  which  every 
child  should  be  brought  up.  Though  we  have  had  marvelous 
results  from  the  campaigns  to  lower  infantile  mortality,  most  of 
what  has  been  done  has  been  medical  in  its  interest,  and  so 
largely  negative  in  its  accomplishments.  The  removal  of  the 
causes  of  evil  no  doubt  gives  the  good  its  opportunity.  But  how 
to  raise  a  child,  endowed  with  satisfactory  ancestral  stuff,  as  a 
Grade  A  normal  or  supernormal,  still  remains  to  be  erected  into 
an  exact  science. 

A  number  of  attempts  have  been  abortive  in  this  field.  Why 
they  have  failed  to  arouse  the  ardor  of  the  parent  has  puzzled 
some  of  the  pioneers.  Child-culture  as  the  foundation  of  all 
systems  of  education  has  continued  more  or  less  of  a  hope  rather 
than  an  achievement  because  of  a  lack  of  appreciation  of  the 
different  constitutional  varieties  of  children.  A  certain  amount 
of  attention  has  been  lavished  upon  children  needing  special  at- 
tention, those  mainly  suffering  from  insufficient  development  of 
one  sort  or  another.  In  the  last  decade  or  so,  an  endeavour  to 
focus  upon  the  exceptional  child,  exceptional  in  intelligence  or 
some  special  creative  endowment,  has  started  an  interesting  move- 
ment. All  of  them  have  suffered  from  the  fallacies  and  troubles 
of  the  pure  psychologist  who  would  handle  mind  as  an  entity  in 
a  vacuum. 

A  realization  of  the  different  physical  and  psychic  educational 
needs  of  various  children  will  arrive  only  when  we  see  them  as 
built  differently.  Just  as  shoddy  and  silk,  cotton  and  wool,  alone 
or  in  combination,  all  possess  different  qualities  as  wearing  ma- 
terial, so  different  children  have  varying  capacities  for  the  wear 
and  tear  of  education.  The  endocrine  classification  of  the  human 
race,  applied  to  children,  will  here  yield  a  harvest  to  the  educator 
and  to  the  country.  Nothing  is  more  evident  than  the  diversified 
nature  of  the  needs  of  the  various  internal  secretion  types,  once 
they  are  realized  as  such. 


APPLICATIONS  AND  POSSIBILITIES  263 

The  history  of  a  thyniocentric  type,  for  instance,  is  predictable 
from  the  very  first  few  months  of  his  life.  Difficulties  in  feed- 
ing, in  habit  formation  and  adaptation,  in  the  reaction  to  infec- 
tions, in  social  play  and  so  on,  one  may  expect  for  him.  The 
course  of  events  for  the  other  endocrine  types  also  follow  laws 
of  their  own.  It  will  be  above  all  in  the  understanding  of  chil- 
dren, their  make-up,  reactions  and  powers,  that  the  biologist 
will  achieve  some  of  his  finest  triumphs. 

The  educator  will  have  to  take  account  of  the  state  of  the 
pituitary  in  estimating  the  normal  intelligence,  or  influencing  the 
abnormal  or  subnormal  intelligence.  As  well  will  he  have  to 
consider  the  thyroid  in  the  child  whose  conduct  is  refractory, 
even  though  his  proficiency  in  his  studies  is  excellent.  And  the 
condition  of  the  adrenal  will  be  ascertained  in  the  types  that  tire 
easily,  and  that  seem  unable  to  make  the  effort  necessary  or 
desirable.  Periodic  seasonal  and  critical  fluctuations  in  the  equi- 
librium among  the  hormones  will  have  to  be  taken  into  account 
in  the  explanation  of  what  have  hitherto  been  put  down  to  lazi- 
ness, naughtiness,  stupidity,  or  obstinacy. 

A  child's  capacity  for  education,  essentially  its  capacity  for 
the  highest  and  most  productive  kind  of  life,  is  limited  by  in- 
herent factors.  These  factors  are  two:  the  quality  of  the  nerve 
tissue,  its  ability  to  make  a  number  of  associations,  and  the 
quantity  of  the  internal  secretions,  measured  by  the  maximum 
obtainable  in  a  given  situation.  These  inherent  factors  explain, 
too,  why  children  born  and  bred  in  virtually  the  same  environ- 
ment show  the  most  extreme  differences  in  educability.  That 
the  differences  are  inherited  was  made  evident  by  Galton's  finding 
that  the  chance  of  the  son  of  an  eminent  man  exhibiting  eminent 
ability  was  500  times  as  great  as  that  of  the  son  of  a  man  taken 
at  random. 

Every  baby,  then,  is  born  with  a  combination  of  nerve  cells 
and  ductless  glands  which  determine  its  capacity  for  mental 
development,  that  might  never  be  realized,  but  could  never  be 
exceeded.  If,  in  any  family,  minor  differences  in  educability 
are  observed,  they  can  be  put  down  to  disturbance  of  these  two 
factors  occurring  after  the  fertilized  germ  cell  had  started  to 
divide  and  reproduce  itself.  But  any  marked  falling  off  in  either 
the  nervous  or  endocrine  factors  has  to  be  considered  pathologic, 
due  to  an  impairment  of  them  by  adverse  environment. 

Recent  studies  have  amply  established  that  the  proportion  of 
certifiable  mental  defectives,  and  of  a  much  larger  class,  the 


264     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

subnormal  but  not  certifiable  class,  is  progressing  by  leaps  and 
bounds.  It  is  perhaps  the  most  absurd  frailty  of  our  present 
system  of  education  that  it  takes  almost  no  account  of  innate 
differences  in  educability.  To  spend  money  upon  the  teaching 
of  these  children  along  lines  where  they  are  unteachable  is  not 
only  waste  pure  and  simple,  but  crime,  for  it  deprives  the 
educables  of  their  just  due. 

These,  of  course,  are  the  crude  and  simple  lines  upon  which 
the  finer  and  more  complex  evolution  of  the  endocrine  problems 
of  the  school  child  will  build.  The  fine  art  of  education  itself 
is  crude  and  gross  and  simple  compared  with  what  it  might  be, 
even  as  a  beginning.  The  science  of  education  has  yet  to  begin, 
as  the  offspring  of  that  science  of  the  future,  to  which  knowledge 
of  the  internal  secretions  will  contribute  no  little,  the  science  of 
puericulture. 

Vocational  Education 

It  is  difficult,  indeed,  to  avoid  becoming  merely  enthusiastic 
upon  the  possibilities  of  the  applications  of  the  endocrines  to 
the  educational  domain.  Happiness  for  the  average  individual 
consists  of  a  double  success — success  in  his  vocation  (chosen  or 
forced  upon  him)  and  success  in  his  sex  life.  A  certain  hue  and 
cry  has  been  raised  in  the  last  few  years  concerning  the  vast 
and  overwhelming  importance  of  sex  in  the  happiness  and  even 
in  the  successes  of  a  man's  everyday  life.  And  no  doubt  there 
is  a  relation.  Sublimation  plays  its  part  in  the  explanation  of 
vocational  idiosyncrasies.  The  fact,  however,  that  perfect  suc- 
cess in  sex  may  occur  with  absolute  failure  in  the  career,  however, 
splits  the  problem  for  good  into  its  realities:  a  physiologic  aspect 
as  well  as  a  psychologic. 

So,  as  school  education  will  have  to  take  serious  account  of 
endocrine  anomalies  and  possibilities,  will  the  institution  which 
selects  and  trains  for  a  career.  Vocational  misfits  have  aroused 
the  ardor  of  our  efficiency  experts.  And  again,  the  sweeping 
psychological  attack  has  beaten  its  head  against  the  stonewall  of 
ignorance  of  constitutional  predispositions  and  tendencies  of 
material.  The  attempt  to  erect  psychologic  types  for  vocational 
selections  could  never  make  much  headway  because  it  could  only 
flounder  in  a  swamp  of  metaphors,  product  of  the  vices  of  its 
methods.  Not  that  anyone  would  wish  to  discard  at  all  the 
psychologic  mode  of  approach.    But  no  science,  in  the  sense  of 


APPLICATIONS  AND  POSSIBILITIES  265 

accurate  examination,  was  possible,  in  the  matter  of  classifica- 
tion for  vocation,  without  the  insight  into  the  physiology  of  the 
candidate  that  the  analysis  of  his  endocrine  formula  will  pro- 
vide. 

One  need  not  dilate  upon  the  value  of  such  an  examination. 
Civilization  has  not  yet  learned  how  to  pick  its  personnel.  And 
so  artists  and  scientists,  philosophers  and  politicians,  financiers 
and  religious  leaders,  arise  and  survive  by  the  operation  of  the 
laws  of  probabilities  and  chances,  rather  than  by  any  intelligent 
selection  and  cultivation  of  material.  The  case,  indeed,  is  simply 
a  subdivision  of  the  vast  subject:  haphazard  muddle  in  the  con- 
duct of  life.  A  cry  has  been  raised  for  the  superman,  and  a  cry 
has  been  raised  for  a  method  of  anthropometry.  For  the  lack  of 
these  two,  it  has  been  said,  all  governments  have  been  doomed 
to  defeat.  The  study  of  the  endocrines  will  by  no  means  supply 
a  panacea.  But  as  it  will  furnish  a  means  of  approach  to  the 
determination  of  how  men  and  women  are  built,  and  why  they 
are  built  differently,  no  one  can  gainsay  the  tremendous  advan- 
tages to  the  nation  that  will  proceed  to  classify  its  population 
accordingly,  and  know  its  strength  and  weakness  in  terms  of  the 
actual  generators  of  success  and  failure. 

Suggestions  have  been  offered  in  the  preceding  pages  of  con- 
crete applications  of  endocrine  knowledge  to  the  understanding 
of  behaviour,  of  the  genius  and  commonplace,  criminal  and  Puri- 
tan. And  in  the  chapter  on  historic  personages,  we  tracked  some 
of  the  story  in  detail.  This  vein  when  explored  will  quarry  un- 
told riches.  It  has  been  observed  that  financiers  of  mark,  like 
great  musicians,  are  special  pituitary  types.  Also  that  the  finan- 
ciers are  voracious  meat  eaters  and  the  musicians  inordinately 
fond  of  sweets.  Differences  in  anterior  and  posterior  predomi- 
nances might  account  for  this.  That  we  are  playing  here  with 
no  phantasy  is  proven  by  the  fact  that  we  can  effect  changes  of 
tastes  as  well  as  of  intellectual  direction  by  appropriate  feeding 
of  various  glandular  extracts.  Just  as  much,  indeed,  as  we  can 
influence  sex  susceptibility,  and  the  reaction  to  sex  stimulation, 
by  the  artificial  introduction  from  without  of  the  proper  hor- 
mones. 

Fatigue  and  Industry 

In  industry,  business  and  profession,  the  biologist  will  come 
more  and  more  to  be  called  as  consultant.    Labor  unions  as  well 


266     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

as  the  large  employers  of  labor,  and  their  employment  managers 
have  given  much  thought  to  the  problem  of  fatigue.  Just  what 
fatigue  is,  why  different  individuals  tire  at  different  rates,  why 
some  are  constructed  for  monotonous  routine  while  others  must 
have  constant  variety  and  change,  the  relation  to  accidents  and 
to  quantity  output,  are  a  few  of  the  major  lines  of  inquiiy  upon 
which  the  endocrines  obviously  have  a  large  bearing.  To  the 
employment  manager,  labor  turnover  and  the  selection  of  per- 
sonnel are  adjacent  fields  of  research. 

Fatigue  as  an  endocrine  deficiency — a  depressed  state  of  one  or 
more  of  the  glands  of  internal  secretion,  abolished  when  its  normal 
functioning  is  restored — is  a  general  principle  from  which  de- 
partures of  exploration  of  sub-problems  will  proceed.  An  en- 
docrine organ  will  secrete  at  a  certain  rate.  When  it  is  stimulated 
excessively,  it  will  eject  extra  amounts  of  its  secretion.  How  long 
the  period  of  excessive  stimulation  may  last  must  depend  upon 
the  secretion  potential  or  margin  of  reserve  of  the  cells,  varying 
from  organ  to  organ,  and  from  individual  to  individual.  After 
that,  exhaustion  and  failure  follows,  with  the  onset  of  the  symp- 
toms of  fatigue. 

A  pretty  demonstration  of  this  process  has  been  worked  out 
in  the  electrical  stimulation  of  muscle.  If  a  muscle,  say  the 
biceps,  is  irritated  by  an  electric  current,  it  will  contract.  As 
the  strength  of  the  current  is  increased,  the  degree  of  contraction 
becomes  greater.  A  sort  of  stepladder  effect  of  increasing  con- 
tractions may  be  thus  obtained.  After  a  time,  the  electric  shocks 
cannot  cause  a  greater  contraction,  but  only  a  lesser.  And  if  con- 
tinued, the  muscle  will  cease  to  function  because  of  fatigue. 
If  now,  when  the  muscle  begins  to  lag  in  its  response,  and  its 
contractions  to  decrease,  one  injects  into  a  vein  extracts  of 
thyroid,  parathyroid,  or  adrenal  glands,  they  will  immediately 
reinvigorate  the  failing  contractions.  The  injections  must  be 
made  before  the  fatigue  is  carried  to  the  point  of  absolute  ex- 
haustion. It  follows  that  these  glands  normally  pour  into  the 
circulation  substances  which  counteract  the  effect  of  fatigue  sub- 
stances, and  in  fact  make  possible  muscular  recuperation  from 
fatigue  throughout  the  day  as  well  as  in  emergencies  and  crises. 

Fatigue,  conventionally  recognized,  is  something  acute  and 
urgent.  As  such  it  means  a  violent  draining  of  the  endocrine 
wells.  But  there  is  also  a  chronic  fatigue,  which  has  been  dig- 
nified with  the  name  of  Fatigue  Disease.  Bernard  Shaw  once 
asked  for  someone  to  tell  him  the  name  of  the  germ  causing  the 


APPLICATIONS  AND  POSSIBILITIES  267 

symptoms  of  overwork.  That  being  impossible,  he  will  have  to  be 
satisfied  with  the  answer  that  it  is  not  a  germ,  but  an  internal 
secretion,  or  rather  a  defect  of  internal  secretion  that  is  the 
cause. 

Whether  or  not  the  adrenals  have  been  damaged  by  past  ex- 
periences, and  upon  their  capacity  to  respond  to  the  necessities  of 
an  occasion,  fatigue  reactions  primarily  depend.  A  quotation 
from  Sir  James  MacKenzie,  most  distinguished  of  modern  English 
students  of  medicine,  summarizes  the  matter  neatly.  "Abelous, 
and  Langlois  and  Albanese  have  studied  the  relation  of  the  ad- 
renal bodies  to  fatigue.  .  .  .  They  infer  that  the  muscular 
weakness  following  removal  of  the  adrenals  is  due  to  toxic  sub- 
stances. In  view  of  our  present  knowledge  of  the  physiological 
action  of  adrenaline  in  its  various  forms,  it  seems  more  probable 
that  the  weakness  is  to  be  explained  by  the  absence  of  the 
normal  tone  producing  internal  secretions  of  the  bodies  in  ques- 
tion." In  other  words,  the  adrenals  regulate  muscle  tone.  They 
produce  nature's  tonics  for  weary  tissues.  The  chronic  lassitude 
of  thousands  of  our  generation,  suffering  from  "that  tired  feeling," 
may  be  put  down  to  chronic  adrenal  insufficiency. 

It  requires  no  superlative  imagination  to  see  that  an  adrenal 
poor  subject  does  not  belong  upon  a  job  that  involves  muscle 
stress  over  a  long  period,  or  indeed  fatiguing  conditions  of  any 
sort.  Nor  that  a  thyroid  poor  individual  is  not  the  best  choice 
for  a  position  that  demands  a  keen,  alert  body  and  mind.  In 
the  selection  of  executives,  the  nature  and  stamina  of  the  pitui- 
tary will  undoubtedly  be  taken  very  seriously  in  the  near  future. 

A  certain  hocus-pocus  concerning  character  reading,  a  per- 
verted revival  of  the  ancient  phrenology  and  physiognomy,  has 
invaded  the  employment  territory  in  America  as  the  newest 
charlatanism.  The  study  of  the  internal  secretions,  including 
blood  and  X-ray  examinations,  will  surely  assist  the  demand  for 
a  truly  scientific  estimate  of  constitution  and  character  that  can 
be  relied  upon  in  the  classification  and  distribution  of  personnel. 

The  Prospects  for  Public  Health 

By  their  effects  upon  the  endocrines,  public  health  influences 
like  food,  clothing,  sleep  and  overpressure  and  last  but  not  least, 
disease,  the  so-called  diseases  of  childhood,  possess  a  tremendous 
importance  in  limiting  the  output  of  the  educable.  They  act  to 
subtract  from  and  so  to  lower  the  rating,  the  capacity  of  the 


268      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

germ-plasm.  Most  material  and  vital  of  these  influences  are 
the  common  diseases  of  children,  for  they  strike  directly  at  the 
glands  of  internal  secretion. 

Measles,  scarlet  fever,  diphtheria,  mumps,  and  the  others  have 
long  been  accepted  as  providential  visitations  for  sins  known  or 
unknown.  That  children  had  to  have  them  and  were  better  off 
when  they  had  them  has  become  part  of  the  tradition  of  the 
laity,  fostered  by  the  lazy  ignorance  of  previous  medical  genera- 
tions. But  today  we  are  beginning  to  ask  ourselves  why  children 
must  have  these  endemic  infections  of  their  age.  The  pathologist 
goes  farther  and  asks  the  reason  for  certain  apparent  immunities. 
He  asks  why  the  little  boy  who  sleeps  with  his  brother  sick  with 
scarlet  fever  does  not  contract  the  disease,  even  though  not  pro- 
tected by  a  previous  attack. 

Determining  why  susceptibility  to  a  special  disease  in  a  par- 
ticular case  exists  will  constitute  the  greatest  line  of  advance  for 
the  understanding  and  prevention  of  disease,  and  so  the  perfec- 
tion of  public  health.  In  the  last  influenza  epidemic  countless 
physicians  were  puzzled  by  the  spectacle  of  men  and  women  in 
the  pink  of  condition  carried  off  in  twenty-four  hours  while  puny 
associates  were  either  passed  over,  or  pooh-poohed  their  colds. 
Pathologists  have  spent  their  energies  fruitfully  upon  the  infec- 
tious causes  of  disease,  the  microbes  and  parasites  especially. 
But  now,  having  solved  most  of  those  problems,  the  vital  ques- 
tion of  why  an  organism  permits  itself  to  be  attacked  is  pushing 
itself  to  the  front.  Why  a  peculiar  ailment  selects  its  victim,  why 
the  bacillus  finds  a  fertile  soil,  is  the  neglected  problem,  which 
must  be  solved  before  the  abolition  of  disease  and  its  carriers 
will  be  remotely  conceivable. 

Long  ago,  Hippocrates,  revered  founder  of  the  art  of  medicine, 
recognized  that  there  was  a  specific  affinity  of  disease  for  indi- 
viduals with  more  or  less  the  same  characteristic  somatic  and 
psychic  traits  and  trends.  Tuberculosis,  for  instance,  was  noted 
for  its  frequency  in  long-skeletoned,  thin  persons,  remarkably 
optimistic.  And  the  plethoric,  choleric  nature  of  the  sufferer 
from  gout  has  become  proverbial.  Before  the  era  of  the  great 
bacteriologic  discoveries  of  the  eighties  and  nineties,  the  con- 
cordance of  esoteric  racial  and  personal  markings  was  a  great 
help  in  diagnosis  to  the  physician.  For  he  realized,  though  he 
sometimes  credited  it  to  his  clinical  intuition,  that  it  was  a  certain 
type  of  personality  that  was  liable  to  the  specific  disease. 

But  personality  and  its  reactions,  normal  and  abnormal,  are 


APPLICATIONS  AND  POSSIBILITIES  269 

determined  by  the  endocrines.  So  we  should  find  that  particular 
infections  run  with  special  internal  glandular  predominances. 
For  the  picture  presented  by  an  infection,  temperature,  rash, 
prostration,  are  the  details  of  the  general  reaction  of  the  organ- 
ism in  the  face  of  a  new  situation,  the  presence  of  a  powerful, 
destructive  invader.  Information  has  accumulated  that  the  in- 
vader is  powerful  and  destructive,  as  well  as  selective,  because 
of  endocrine  deficiency  of  one  sort  or  another  in  the  body  it  has 
attacked.  Work  of  a  number  of  investigators  has  indicated  that 
an  individual's  susceptibility  or  its  reverse,  resistance,  is  inti- 
mately subjected  to  the  derangements  or  harmonies  of  the  en- 
docrine system. 

Comparison  of  the  endocrine  type  and  the  disease  assaulting 
has  yielded  an  even  more  interesting  principle.  Knowing  the 
state  of  the  internal  secretion  reservoirs  enables  us  to  predict  the 
liability  to  certain  of  these  infections  of  childhood.  Diphtheria 
has  been  found  to  occur  most  virulently  among  adrenal  poor  in- 
dividuals. Moreover,  they  are  left  poorer  in  adrenal  afterwards. 
It  follows  that  they  would  be  assisted  by  the  feeding  of  adrenal. 
Mumps  is  a  sickness  that  sometimes  permanently  injures  the 
gonads:  the  testes  or  ovaries.  The  thyroid  dominant,  whose 
system  is  rich  in  thyroid,  will  rarely  suffer  from  any  of  the  com- 
mon diseases  of  children — if  at  all,  from  measles.  On  the  other 
hand,  those  who  have  every  infection  of  the  period,  and  who,  as 
their  mothers  say,  seem  to  get  everything,  are  those  whose  sys- 
tem is  thyroid  poor.  Thyroid  poverty  is  a  splendid  enticement 
to  the  universal  microbe.  The  thymocentric  stands  all  diseases 
poorly.  The  pituitary  type  is  more  liable  to  epidemic  meningitis 
and  infantile  paralysis,  typhoid  and  scarlet  fever. 

The  public  health  officer  of  the  future  will  be  armed  with  a 
new  weapon  in  his  fight  against  the  spread  of  an  epidemic.  He 
will  be  able  to  classify  the  endocrine  traits  of  the  population 
exposed,  and  to  advise  a  course  of  glandular  feeding  for  the  types 
specially  liable.  The  Schick  test  for  diphtheria  susceptibility  is 
an  illustration  of  one  method  of  approach  to  the  problem  of  the 
epidemiologist  in  settling  who  needs  protection.  The  endocrines 
will  assist  him  in  the  great  body  of  diseases  for  which  no  im- 
munity test  is  at  hand.  Should  another  influenza  epidemic  come 
along,  for  instance,  the  proper  handling,  from  the  endocrine  stand- 
point, of  the  thymocentrics  and  the  related  adrenocentrics  would 
help  considerably  in  lowering  the  mortality. 

Endocrine  types  have  other  tendencies,  which  when  studied  and 


270     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

controlled,  will  decimate  the  great  assassins  of  middle  age:  heart 
disease  and  kidney  disease,  with  accompanying  degenerations  of 
the  blood  vessels  and  circulation.  The  adrenocentric  tends  to  get 
up  a  hyperacidity  of  the  stomach  and  a  high  blood  pressure, 
besides  certain  forms  of  diseases  of  the  lungs.  The  thyro- 
centric  is  predisposed  to  heart  disease,  as  well  as  intestinal  dis- 
turbances. The  pituitocentric  is  liable  to  periodic  and  cyclic 
upsets  in  his  health. 

Narcotism,  the  craving  for  narcotic  or  stimulant  drugs,  and  its 
subvariety,  alcoholism,  has  been  found  most  often  among  the 
thymocentrics.  Any  type  of  endocrine  inferiority,  interfering 
with  success  in  life,  may  lead  to  the  habit  of  drug  addiction  as 
one  way  out.  But  the  blood  and  tissues  of  the  thymocentric  ap- 
pear to  become  habituated  to  the  narcotic  stimulant  more  easily 
than  the  other  types,  and  so  to  demand  it  with  a  physical  impera- 
tive comparable  to  the  food  or  sex  urge.  Among  artists,  philoso- 
phers and  statesmen,  on  the  other  hand,  actively  productive  and 
so  contrasted  with  criminals  and  degenerates  drug  addiction  has 
frequently  been  a  mode  of  endocrine  compensation.  That  is,  the 
drug  produced  temporarily  the  effects  of  the  internal  secretion 
lacking  or  insufficient.  Thus  the  effects  of  cocaine  may  be  com- 
pared with  the  effects  of  thyroid.  But  while  there  is  a  normal 
mechanism  for  thyroid  detoxication,  the  cocaine  or  heroin  deriva- 
tives mark  the  tissues  permanently  with  their  scars  and  deform 
the  personality. 

The  Hygiene  of  the  Internal  Secretions 

All  these  protean  expressions  of  endocrine  determination  may 
now  begin  to  be  looked  upon  with  the  hopeful  and  optimistic 
attitude  of  him  who  understands  cause  and  effect  and  can  control. 
The  advances  made  in  the  last  ten  years  in  the  practical  manipu- 
lation of  the  ductless  glands  from  without,  the  introduction  of 
glandular  extracts  by  feeding  or  injection,  and  the  modification 
of  their  structure  and  function  by  surgery,  the  X-ray  and  radium, 
and  other  procedures,  enable  us  to  regard  more  confidently  the 
problems  hitherto  accepted  as  the  insoluble  and  intricate  handi- 
work of  Fate.  Fate  may  have  woven  the  patterns  of  our  being. 
But  as  we  commence  to  probe  the  machinery  and  to  examine  the 
looms  more  carefully,  we  begin  to  understand  why  the  wheels 
creak,  and  why  there  are  seconds  and  odd  lots  in  the  product  as 
well  as  the  rare  and  precious  firsts.    Moreover,  we  are  learning 


APPLICATIONS  AND  POSSIBILITIES  271 

how  to  handle  the  machinery  ourselves.    The  abdication  of  Fate 
can  therefore  be  confidently  expected  in  due  time. 

However,  we  have  yet  to  begin,  and  we  can  begin  with  preven- 
tion. The  theory  of  Adler,  that  some  organ  inferiority  is  respon- 
sible for  much  unhappiness  in  life  has  received  much  advertise- 
ment in  conjunction  with  the  doctrines  of  the  Freudians.  It  is  a 
theory  of  little  scope  when  applied  to  the  eyes,  ears,  heart  and  so 
on  because  only  a  small  minority  of  the  cases  are  of  that  kind. 
But  as  we  have  seen,  a  deficiency  of  an  internal  secretion,  an 
endocrine  inferiority,  reverberates  throughout  all  the  cells.  Not 
only  the  mind,  but  all  of  the  members  of  the  organism  must 
strain  and  co-operate  to  make  up  for  the  break  in  the  balance. 

Endocrine  inferiority  is  indeed  the  most  frequent  organic  in- 
feriority. And  we  may  explain  a  number  of  mental  types  upon 
that  basis.  Thus  the  inferior  gonado-centric,  who  has  something 
wrong  with  his  reproductive  organs,  will  evolve  in  one  of  two 
directions.  If  his  adrenal  and  thyroid  are  of  poor  quality,  he  will 
become  the  secluded  introvert,  shut  off  from  the  interests  of  nor- 
mal life.  He  will  enter  the  borderland  of  insanity  if  pituitary 
difficulties  supervenes.  If,  on  the  contrary,  the  adrenal,  thyroid 
and  pituitary  are  present  in  a  certain  proportion,  he  will  be- 
come the  active,  aggressive,  never-resting,  keen,  and  relentless 
fanatic  reformer.  A  woman  who  is  gonad  deficient  with  a 
superior  adrenal  will  suffer  from  virilism  and  specialize  in  the 
extreme  tactics  and  mythology  of  the  feminist  movement.  A 
number  of  life  reactions  are  classifiable  as  the  strivings  of  en- 
docrine inferior  individuals  to  overcome  their  sense  of  inferiority. 
The  unconscious  vegetative  system  and  the  system  of  conscious- 
ness are  both  modified  by  the  weakness  of  a  link  in  the  glandular 
chain. 

What,  therefore,  is  to  be  recommended  in  the  prophylaxis  of 
the  natural  deterioration  of  the  wells  of  life,  the  ductless  glands? 
For  even  if  we  may  be  able  to  replenish  them  when  they  dry  up, 
would  it  not  be  better  to  delay  their  dessication?  The  hormones 
reply  to  every  call  of  life  and  respond  in  every  reaction.  The 
normal  constructive  process  of  their  cells  remanufactures  what 
has  been  lost,  and  the  original  capacity  to  respond  is  restored. 
If,  though,  the  rate  of  destruction  and  loss  outruns  the  rate  of 
repair  and  construction,  they  will  be  permanently  damaged.  This 
is  what  occurs  in  shock,  serious,  severe  accidents  and  injuries, 
prolonged  infections  and  diseases,  profound  continued  emotions, 
and  the  wear  and  tear  of  overwork.     The  prevention  of  these 


272     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

excessive  fatigues  of  the  endocrine  system  in  one  or  all  of  its 
parts,  and  especially  the  prevention  and  enfeeblement  of  the  dis- 
eases of  children  which  injure  them  at  a  period  when  they  are 
most  sensitive  to  injur.-,  is  the  task  of  the  endocrine  hygienist. 
Periodic  examinations,  to  check  up  the  balance  sheets  of  the  hor- 
mone factories  and  to  measure  the  amount  of  their  damage  by 
means  of  blood  analyses,  will  provide  the  most  valuable  method 
in  the  campaign  to  lengthen  the  productive  and  enjoving  span  of 
life. 

The  Treatment  of  Crime 

Endocrine  hygiene  will  discover  no  wider  or  more  fruitful  area 
for  exploration  and  control  than  that  of  crime.  For  more  than  a 
generation  there  have  been  attempts  at  a  criminology,  and  a  new 
understanding  and  control  of  crime.  In  the  United  States  a 
concomitant  sentimentalism  has  concocted  measures  like  the 
honor  system  which,  naturally  failing  of  their  purpose,  have 
undermined  confidence  in  the  idea  of  scientific  diagnosis  and 
treatment  of  crime.  As  someone  has  noted,  to  ask  a  criminal 
to  promise  not  to  misbehave,  when  discharged  from  prison,  is 
like  asking  a  typhoid  fever  patient  to  promise  not  to  have  a 
temperature  above  ninety-nine  degrees  the  next  morning.  For 
a  large  proportion  of  criminals — the  percentage  has  yet  to  be  de- 
termined, although  the  most  recent  police  commissioner  of 
Chicago  has  estimated  it  at  ninety  per  cent — punishment  for  a 
period  of  time  and  then  letting  him  go  free  is  like  imprisoning  a 
diphtheria  carrier  for  a  while  and  then  permitting  him  to  com- 
mingle with  his  fellows  and  spread  the  germ  of  diphtheria. 

Of  course,  the  doctrine  of  responsibility  is  all  tangled  up  with 
our  attitude  towards  and  treatment  of  crime.  Though  clear 
thought  makes  mandatory  the  recognition  of  a  universal  cause 
and  effect  law,  practical  common  sense  has  defined  free  will. 
Consent  or  the  withholding  of  consent  to  a  given  course  of  action 
has  been  the  criterion  of  responsibility. 

In  practice,  the  limitation  of  responsibility  will  depend  upon 
the  insertion  of  extraneous  factors  into  the  formula  of  consent. 
The  pragmatic  test  has  been  and  will  be  the  probability  that  the 
correction  of  the  somatic  or  psychic  condition  would  have  pre- 
vented or  will  prevent  the  consent  to  the  crime.  As  long  as  no 
such  condition  will  be  demonstrable,  society  for  its  own  protection 
will  have  to  confine  the  unfortunate  individual. 

The  character  of  the  confinement,  its  duration,  and  the  uses 


APPLICATIONS  AND  POSSIBILITIES  273 

to  which  it  will  be  put  should  be  dominated  by  the  idea  of  dis- 
covering the  unknown  criminal  predisposition.  If  crime  is  an 
abnormality  scientifically  studiable  and  controllable  like  measles, 
court  procedure  and  prison  management  will  have  to  be  trans- 
formed radically.  There  is  scattered  throughout  the  world  now 
a  group  of  people  who  are  applying  medical  methods  to  the  diag- 
nosis and  treatment  of  crime.  They  are  the  pioneers  who  will 
be  remembered  in  history  as  the  compeers  of  those  who  trans- 
formed the  attitudes  toward  insanity  and  its  therapy.  The  insane 
were  once  condemned  and  handled  as  criminals  are  in  most  civil- 
ized countries  yet.  The  criminologic  laboratory  as  an  adjunct 
to  the  court  of  justice,  like  that  associated  with  the  court  of 
Chief  Justice  Olson  in  Chicago,  remains  to  be  universalized. 
What  contribution  to  a  more  rational  treatment  of  the  criminal 
will  the  study  of  the  internal  secretions  make? 

It  has  been  shown  that  the  greater  number  of  convicts  are 
mentally  and  morally  subnormal.  To  explain  the  subnormality, 
the  criminologist  has  conducted  and  will  continue  to  conduct  in- 
vestigations into  the  heredity  and  early  environment  of  the 
criminal,  his  education  and  occupation,  the  social  and  religious 
influences  to  which  he  was  subjected,  and  the  intelligence  test 
quotient.  The  conditioning  of  the  vegetative  system  and  the 
endocrine  status  of  the  prisoner,  however,  will  without  a  doubt 
come  to  occupy  the  leading  positions  in  any  interpretation  of 
crime  in  the  future. 

Introspective  observation  of  pre-criminal  states  of  mind  by  so- 
called  normal  persons  reveals  that  in  many  of  them  there  is  an 
impairment  of  reason  and  will  power,  in  others  an  exaltation 
amounting  almost  to  hysteria.  What  are  these  but  endocrine 
states  of  the  cells,  experimentally  reproducible  by  increasing  or 
decreasing  the  influence  of  the  thyroid,  the  adrenals,  the  pitui- 
tary? Crimes  of  passion  may  be  traced  in  no  small  part  to  dis- 
turbances of  the  thyroid.  A  psychologic  examiner  of  a  Pittsburgh 
court,  interested  in  the  subject,  has  found  an  enlarged  thyroid  in 
over  ninety  per  cent  of  delinquent  girls.  Similarly,  crimes  of  vio- 
lence may  be  ascribed  to  a  profound  break  in  the  adrenal 
equilibrium.  Criminal  tendencies  in  women  during  menstruation 
and  pregnancy,  periods  of  deep-seated  mutation  in  the  internal 
glandular  system,  have  long  been  noted.  A  kleptomania,  uncon- 
trollable desire  to  steal,  confined  to  the  duration  of  pregnancy 
alone,  has  been  described.  We  have  seen  how  the  thymocentric, 
especially  if  he  possesses  a  small  bony  case  for  his  pituitary,  is 


274      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

predisposed  to  crime.  A  recent  study  of  twenty  murderers  in 
the  State  of  West  Virginia  showed  them  all  to  have  a  persistent 
thymus  and  the  thymocentric  constitution.  A  study  of  the 
recidivists,  those  who  return  for  second  and  third  offences,  in 
one  institution,  disclosed  that  a  large  majority  had  a  subnormal 
temperature  and  an  increased  heart  and  breathing  rate.  These 
are  endocrine-controlled  functions.  Conduct,  normal  or  abnor- 
mal, being  the  resultant  of  the  conflict  of  conscious  and  subcon- 
scious impulses  and  inhibitions,  the  internal  secretions  as 
controllers  of  the  susceptibility  of  the  brain  cells  to  impulses  and 
inhibitions,  must  be  held  accountable  for  a  portion  at  least  of 
the  chemical  reactions  behind  crime. 

It  is  possible,  by  X-ray  treatment  of  the  thymus,  to  cause  it 
to  shrink  to  more  normal  proportions.  It  is  possible,  by  feeding 
various  glandular  extracts,  to  correct  deficiencies  or  excesses  of 
their  function,  and  so  to  remedy  the  underlying  basis  for  a  crim- 
inal career.  Here  and  there  work  of  this  kind  has  been  success- 
fully carried  out  in  selected  instances.  What  a  suitable  drive 
upon  the  whole  matter  would  yield  in  happiness  to  the  individual 
and  dollars  and  cents  to  society,  time  alone  will  show. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
THE  EFFECT  UPON  HUMAN  EVOLUTION 

The  ubiquitous  and  deep-seated  influence  of  the  internal  secre- 
tions upon  life  and  personality  comprises  but  a  fraction  of  what 
is  known,  and  only  a  hint  of  what  is  to  become  known.  There  is 
an  endocrine  aspect  to  every  human  being  and  every  human 
activity,  normal  and  abnormal,  internal  process  and  its  external 
expression,  regulated  by  laws  of  which  we  are  beginning  to  catch 
a  glimpse.  Their  control  promises  us  now  a  dominion  over  the 
most  intimate  and  inaccessible  recesses  of  our  lives  in  a  way 
comparable  only  to  the  control  we  now  exercise  over  the  forces 
and  energies  once  revered  as  the  instruments  of  the  gods — light, 
heat,  magnetism,  electricity.  We  have  learned  how  to  control 
and  change  our  environment.  We  are  now  learning,  endocrine 
research  is  now  discovering,  how  to  control  and  change  ourselves. 

The  story  of  the  evolution  of  the  two  types  of  control  has 
many  analogies.  When  man  ceased  looking  upon  his  surround- 
ings as  inhabited  by  spirits  of  good  and  evil,  as  he  conceived  him- 
self, and  discovered  that  they  were  composed  of  things  malleable 
and  analysable  in  his  hands,  he  became  their  master.  When  now 
he  drops  the  old  superstitions  about  himself  as  a  spirit,  an  emul- 
sion of  a  spirit  of  good  and  spirit  of  evil,  and  sees  himself  more 
and  more  clearly  as  the  most  complex  of  chemical  reactions, 
regulated  and  determined  as  are  the  simple  and  complex  chemical 
reactions  around  him,  he  will  begin  to  rule  and  modify  himself 
as  he  rules  and  modifies  them.  Whether  or  not  he  will  ultimately 
come  to  this  final  lucidity  of  thought  and  action,  it  behooves  us 
to  consider  some  of  the  uses  to  which  our  present  knowledge 
might  be  put. 

Since  every  step  of  the  daily  routine  or  adventure,  from  waking 
to  sleeping,  eating,  drinking,  marrying  and  giving  in  marriage, 
working,  idling,  fighting,  playing,  feeling,  enjoying,  sorrowing, 
every  shade  of  emotion  and  nuance  of  mood,  in  short  every 
phase  of  happiness  and  unhappiness,  are  endocrine  episodes  in  the 
life  history  of  the  individual,  the  sphere  of  applications  is  as  long 

275 


276     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

and  broad  and  deep  as  life  itself.  Not  only  do  the  internal 
secretions  open  up  before  us  the  great  hope — that  Life  at  last 
will  cease  to  stumble  and  grope  and  blunder,  manacled  by  the 
iron  chains  of  inexorable  cause  and  effect.  They  provide  tools, 
concrete  and  measurable,  that  can  be  handled  and  moved,  weighed 
and  seen,  for  the  management  of  the  problems  of  human  nature 
and  evolution. 

Every  department  of  human  life,  the  questions  of  labor  and 
industry,  science  and  art,  education,  puericulture,  international 
problems,  crime  and  disease,  may  be  illuminated.  War  and  Sex, 
those  two  master  interests  of  mankind,  may  be  understood  and 
handled  sympathetically  as  they  have  never  before.  The  reac- 
tions of  man  alone,  and  man  in  the  crowd,  will  be  clarified.  The 
red  thread  of  individuality  which  runs  through  the  woof  and 
warp  of  all  human  affairs  will  be  unraveled. 

Inevitably,  customs,  morals,  codes  of  procedure  and  practice, 
institutions,  all  those  expressions  of  opinion  which  make  conduct, 
all  the  currents  which  contrive  the  infinite  variety  of  life,  will  be 
transmitted  into  another  set  of  values. 

A  remoulding,  a  remodeling  will  take  place  all  along  the  line. 
Manifestly  an  unstable  thymocentric  should  not  be  treated  as  a 
criminal,  but  treated  in  a  sanitarium.  A  masculinoid  woman 
needs  satisfactions  not  vouchsafed  in  the  old  "love,  honor  and 
obey"  home.  How  absurd  it  is  to  found  codes  of  morality  upon 
sermons  or  even  the  latest  psychologies.  During  the  nineteenth 
century  progress  in  physics  and  mechanics  overturned  traditions 
thousands  of  years  had  painfully  toiled  to  erect.  What  is  to 
happen  when  man  comes  at  last  to  experiment  upon  himself  like 
a  god,  dealing  not  only  with  the  materials  without,  but  also  with 
the  very  constituents  of  his  innermost  being?  Will  he  not  then 
indeed  become  a  god?  If  he  does  not  destroy  himself  before, 
that  is  surely  his  destiny.  For  better  or  for  worse,  we  possess 
now  in  the  endocrines  new  instruments  for  swaying  the  indi- 
vidual as  individual,  and  as  related  to  other  individuals,  as  a 
member  of  a  type,  family,  nation,  species  and  genius. 

The  Basis  of  Variation 

The  sense  of  likeness  and  the  sense  of  unlikeness  plays  a  de- 
cisive role  in  the  diurnal  schedule  of  the  individual.  His  sense 
of  resemblance  to  his  father  and  mother,  his  kin  and  clan,  mark 
him  and  them  off  against  the  cosmos  as  an  alliance  of  defense 


THE   EFFECT   UPON   HUMAN   EVOLUTION      277 

and  offense.  Yet  no  matter  how  closely  he  is  like  them  and  they 
like  him,  he  differs  and  varies,  they  differ  and  vary,  with  a  sort 
of  mutual  forgiveness,  because  the  amount  of  resemblance  over- 
tops the  degree  of  variation.  In  a  paper  on  the  "Rediscovery  of 
the  Unique,"  H.  G.  Wells  emphasized  the  unique  quality  of  the 
individual,  and  how,  in  spite  of  the  cleverest  devices  of  classifica- 
tion, living  things  ultimately  escaped  the  classifying  net  by  virtue 
of  their  tendency  forever  to  vary. 

The  individual  is  unique.  Yet  when  all  is  said  and  done,  the 
fact  remains  that  between  individuals  there  is  resemblance,  and 
among  them  variation.  What  is  the  reason  for  their  resemblances 
and  what  is  the  cause  of  their  variation? 

The  conception  of  a  particular  chemical  make-up  of  the  indi- 
vidual, statable  and  relatively  controllable  in  terms  of  the  internal 
secretions,  supplies  a  more  rational  and  satisfactory  method  of 
approach  to  the  problem  than  any  so  far  suggested  as  far  as 
vertebrates  are  concerned  at  any  rate.  In  effect,  the  differences 
between  individuals  may  fundamentally  thus  be  grouped  among 
the  differences  which  distinguish  other  chemical  substances.  The 
difference  between  water,  technically  known  as  hydrogen  monox- 
ide, and  the  antiseptic  fluid  labeled  hydrogen  dioxide  lies  wholly 
in  the  possession  by  the  latter  of  an  extra  atom  of  oxygen  in  its 
molecules.  All  the  peculiarities  and  qualities  by  which  hydrogen 
peroxide  is  separated  from  water  are  referred  to  that  additional 
quantum  of  oxygen.  So  the  diversity  of  constitution  and  appear- 
ance of  two  brothers,  alike  in  that  they  have  inherited  the  same 
internal  secretion  trends,  may  be  traced  to  the  superiority  of  the 
pituitary  of  the  one  over  the  other. 

Variation  and  resemblance  are  large  issues,  crucial  material 
of  the  science  of  biology  upon  which  much  has  been  thought  and 
written.  That  the  proportion  of  the  endocrines  determines  varia- 
tion and  resemblance,  heredity  and  evolution  is  a  hypothesis  ad- 
vanced, supported  by  a  large  amount  of  facts,  and  capable  of  the 
most  interesting  experimental  verification  and  observation.  If  a 
child  resembles  particularly  either  of  its  parents,  grandparents 
or  relatives,  there  is  good  reason  for  believing  that  it  is  because 
their  endocrine  formulas  are  very  much  alike.  When  people 
apparently  not  blood-related  at  all  resemble  one  other,  the  same 
law  must  hold.  Resemblances  may  be  partial  or  complete,  and 
the  degree  will  depend  upon  the  amount  and  ratio  of  the  internal 
secretions  involved. 

The  same  endocrine  constitutions  will  produce  corresponding 


278      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

physiques,  physiognomies,  abilities  and  characters.  Deviations 
in  endocrine  type  from  that  of  the  original  stock,  more  of  one 
endocrine  and  less  of  another,  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  phenome- 
non of  variation,  basic  for  the  origin  of  new  species  as  well  as 
the  extinction  of  the  old.  In  short,  viewing  the  internal  secre- 
tions as  determinants,  by  their  quantitative  variations,  of  a  host 
of  biologic  phenomena  furnishes  a  concrete  and  detailed  founda- 
tion for  Darwin's  theory  of  pangenesis. 

Inheritance  of  Acquired  Characters 

Darwin's  theory  of  pangenesis  was  an  attempt  to  harmonize 
everything  known  in  his  time  about  heredity.  It  supposed  that 
the  various  organs  of  the  body  gave  off  into  the  blood  substances, 
themselves  in  miniature,  which  were  taken  up  by  the  sex  cells, 
and  so  became  responsible  for  the  development  of  their  mother- 
organ  in  the  newly  forming  individual.  Modern  knowledge  can- 
not accept  all  this  as  a  whole.  But  in  a  modified  version,  it  has 
become  the  germ  of  a  theory  of  heredity  of  which  J.  T.  Cunning- 
ham, of  Oxford,  is  the  chief  backer. 

Beginning  with  the  traits  and  qualities  which  distinguish  the 
sexes,  grouped  as  the  secondary  sex  characters,  he  showed  that 
they  are  correlated  with  the  special  sexual  function  of  the  species 
in  which  they  occur.  These  traits  appear  only  when  the  hor- 
mones occur  which  are  present  in  one  sex  and  that  only  when 
the  gonads  of  that  sex  are  mature.  In  some  cases  they  appear 
only  at  the  period  of  the  year  when  reproduction  takes  place, 
disappearing  again  after  the  breeding  season.  Their  presence 
makes  certain  cells  develop  in  excessive  numbers  at  a  particular 
spot  in  the  organism  (as  in  the  growth  of  breasts  from  a  few 
sweat  glands)  or  causes  them  to  specialize  (to  make  hair  on  the 
face  in  man,  or  to  grow  antlers  on  the  head  of  a  stag).  After 
castration,  the  hormones  being  absent,  all  these  points  of  con- 
trast between  the  sexes  fail  to  appear.  So  by  analogy  we  may 
explain  all  somatic  and  psychic  differentiation  as  functions  of 
the  glands  of  internal  secretion.  Contemplated  from  the  angle  of 
the  effect  of  environment  upon  the  endqcrines,  and  a  reflected 
action  upon  the  germ  cells,  we  may  outline  a  mechanism  of 
the  inheritance  of  acquired  characters  at  certain  times  and  con- 
sequent adaptation.    The  cycle  of  events  would  be  as  follows: 

1.  A  state  of  lability  of  cells  at  a  point  because  of  in- 
creased or  decreased  use. 


THE   EFFECT   UPON    HUMAN   EVOLUTION      279 

2.  An  increased  or  decreased  appropriation  by  them  of 

the  hormone  controlling  their  function. 

3.  A  corresponding  increase  or  decrease  in  function  of 

the  gland  of  internal  secretion  and  so, 

4.  An  increased  or  decreased  representation  of  it  in  the 

reproductive  sex  cells  in  the  gonads. 

To  take  a  classic  illustration,  the  long  neck  of  the  giraffe. 
The  neck  of  certain  animals  living  in  a  district  populated  by 
trees  with  high  branches  would  be  in  state  of  instability.  If  at 
the  same  time  the  pituitary,  for  some  reason,  was  unstable  and 
reacted  with  an  extra  supply  of  its  secretion,  it  would  stimulate 
the  neck  cells  to  reproduce  themselves.  In  turn  the  pituitary 
would  become  stabilized  in  the  direction  of  increased  secretion, 
and  hand  on  the  component  of  increased  secretion  to  the  sex  cells. 
That  component,  in  conjunction  with  other  factors,  would  there- 
fore determine  the  emergence  of  a  definite  species  character.  In 
other  words,  the  glands  of  internal  secretion,  as  intermediaries 
between  the  environment  and  body,  and  between  the  body  and 
the  reproductive  sex  cells  or  germplasm,  tender  the  clue  to  a 
phase  of  the  puzzle  of  heredity,  adaptation  and  evolution.  It  is 
only  a  dotted  outline  of  an  explanation  to  be  sure,  but  one  cer- 
tainly capable  of  being  filled  in. 

The  Bearing  on  Breeding 

Since  the  endocrine  glands  are  so  subtly  sensitive  and  respon- 
sive to  environment,  and  are  at  the  same  time  so  intimately  con- 
cerned in  the  process  of  inheritance — a  law  which  sums  up  their 
influence  upon  resemblance  and  variation  in  animals — there  is 
no  need  to  stress  their  importance  for  the  practical  science  and 
art  of  good  breeding,  eugenics.  Another  mode  of  approach  to  its 
problems  is  opened  up,  and  fresh  enthusiasm  instilled  into  its 
hopes -and  aspirations.  A  method  of  analysis  of  the  factors  in- 
volved, together  with  rules  for  the  prediction  of  the  outcome  of 
certain  matings,  when  finally  worked  out,  will  elevate  its  pro- 
cedure to  the  level  of  the  more  exact  sciences. 

A  man's  chief  gift  to  his  children  is  his  internal  secretion  com- 
position. The  endocrines  are  truly  the  matter  of  breeding  as 
they  are  of  growth.  They  are  the  material  carriers  of  the  in- 
herited physical  and  psychic  dispositions,  powers,  abilities  and 
disabilities  from  the  soma  to  the  germplasm  and  back  from  the 
germplasm  to  the  soma.    All  kinds  of  questions  arise  as  soon  as 


280     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

one  attempts  to  consider  the  bearing  of  this  underlying  principle 
upon  concrete  situations.  What  happens,  say,  when  a  pituito- 
centric  mates  with  a  thyrocentric  ?  Or  when  a  pituitocentric 
marries  a  pituitocentric?  Is  there  a  reinforcement  or  a  cancel- 
lation of  the  dominant  endocrine?  Is  there  a  quantitative  addi- 
tion of  internal  glandular  tendencies  in  the  germplasm,  or  a  more 
complex  rearrangement  dependent  upon  reactions  between  all  the 
internal  secretions? 

The  term  endocrine  dominants  brings  up  the  inquiries  of  Men- 
delism,  and  the  relation  of  Mendelian  conceptions  of  dominant 
and  recessive  to  the  internal  secretions.  The  Mendelians  have 
emphasized  the  role  of  the  unit  factor  in  heredity,  and  the  con- 
servation of  the  unit  factor  as  an  entity  through  all  the  adven- 
tures of  matings.  Also,  that  when  unit  factors,  say  of  the  color 
of  the  eyes,  come  into  conflict,  brown  or  black  being  mixed  with 
blue  or  grey,  one,  the  recessive,  is  submerged  and  overlaid  but 
not  destroyed  by  the  other,  the  dominant.  So  brown  or  black 
eyes,  dark  hair,  curly  hair,  dark  skin,  and  so  on,  are  dominant, 
while  blue  or  grey  eyes,  light  or  straight  hair,  light  skin  are 
recessives.  A  nervous  temperament  is  dominant  to  the  phleg- 
matic. A  number  of  psychic  qualities  have  been  declared  to  be 
Mendelian  unit  factors:  memory,  mechanical  instinct,  mathe- 
matical ability,  literary  ability,  musical  ability,  and  even  hand- 
writing. 

As  architects  of  human  qualities  the  endocrines  must  be  in- 
volved in  the  Mendelian  unit  factors.  Moreover,  they  seem  to 
act  upon  a  particular  locale  in  different  degrees,  which  is  the 
strongest  argument  against  the  resolution  of  a  number  of  struc- 
tural traits  into  Mendelian  unit  characters.  Most  characters, 
somatic  or  psychic,  are  the  products  not  of  the  action  of  one 
internal  secretion  alone,  but  of  the  interlinked  activities  of  all 
of  them.  The  amount  of  fat  deposited  under  the  skin,  for  in- 
stance, is  influenced  by  the  pituitary,  the  thyroid,  the  pancreas, 
the  liver,  the  adrenals  and  the  sex  glands.  Other  qualities,  like- 
wise, are  resultants  of  a  compromise  between  all  the  endocrine 
factors  comprising  the  equation  of  the  individual.  If  we  are  to 
look  for  unit  factors  at  all  in  endocrine  heredity,  we  must  look 
more  deeply  into  constitution,  and  measure  the  hormone  poten- 
tials and  their  mobilization  or  suppression. 

It  will,  in  all  probability,  be  found  that  the  stability  or  insta- 
bility of  an  endocrine  will  have  a  good  deal  to  do  with  the  part 
played  by  it  in  inheritance  as  well  as  in  the  life  of  the  individual. 


THE   EFFECT   UPON   HUMAN   EVOLUTION      281 

An  unstable  pituitocentric  marrying  another  unstable  pituito- 
centric  will  have  children  either  exceptionally  small  or  tall,  or 
abnormally  bright  or  stupid.  The  instability  tends  to  right  itself 
in  the  next  generation,  or  that  following.  Genius  as  a  sport, 
as  well  as  sudden  degeneration  of  family  stock,  the  whole  prob- 
lem of  mutation,  may  be  closely  connected  with  this  tendency. 

It  has  been  noted  that  the  extinction  of  species  has  been  pre- 
ceded by  a  great  increase  in  their  size,  for  example,  the  case 
of  the  great  reptilia  of  prehistoric  time.  That  possibly  represented 
pituitary  stabilization,  and  so  an  abeyance  of  the  ability  to  vary, 
necessary  for  fresh  adaptation  to  a  changing  environment.  In- 
deed, endocrine  instability  appears  the  fundamental  condition  of 
the  tendency  to  vary,  endocrine  stability  the  opposite. 

Certain  endocrine  facts  in  relation  to  heredity  should  be  men- 
tioned. The  daughters  of  mothers  who  menstruated  early,  them- 
selves menstruate  early.  Animals  fed  upon  thyroid  during  preg- 
nancy, comparable  to  the  thyrocentric,  give  birth  to  offspring  with 
a  very  large  thymus,  comparable  to  the  thymocentric.  Women 
with  partial  thyroid  deficiency,  or  myxedema,  bear  cretins. 
These  are  suggestive  of  what  the  internal  secretions  may  do  to 
an  individual  in  inheritance  and  development.  Inherited  en- 
docrine potential  is  the  maximum  reaction  of  which  a  gland  is 
capable.  This  matter  of  potential  is  comparable  to  the  factor 
of  reserve  power  or  margin  of  safety  demonstrated  up  to  the  hilt 
for  such  organs  as  the  heart  and  kidney  as  varying  from  indi- 
vidual to  individual.  A  low  potential,  like  instability  of  an 
internal  secretion  gland,  may  be  latent,  and  not  made  manifest 
until  the  proper  stimulus,  the  maximum  amount  of  stress  and 
strain,  like  accident,  disease,  shock  or  war,  arrives. 

When  the  individual  is  tested  the  effects  may  be  purely  local 
because  there  is  always  in  the  organism  a  point  of  least  re- 
sistance. Physical  changes  alone  may  be  prominent.  Or  because 
somatic  changes  are  minor,  the  psychic  will  dominate  the  pic- 
ture. An  attack  of  the  "blues,"  unaccompanied  by  any  demon- 
strable transformation  of  the  bodily  processes,  may  be  the  sole 
symptom  of  an  endocrine  failure  somewhere  in  the  chain  due  to 
hereditary  weakness  or  low  potential. 

So  we  may  account  for  family  trends  and  streaks,  for  varieties 
and  strains  among  individuals,  upon  more  precise  lines  based 
upon  endocrine  analysis.  Family  disturbances  of  the  internal  se- 
cretions of  the  extreme  sort  denominated  disease  are  well  known. 
Indeed,  a  number  of  family  diseases  or  predispositions  to  diseases, 


282      THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

have  been  traced  to  them.  Predisposition  in  any  direction  will 
probably  be  shown  to  be  caused  by  them,  within  limits.  Re- 
search here  has  its  opportunity. 

The  Improvement  of  Racial  Stock 

A  vast  new  territory  of  inquiry  and  achievement,  as  yet  totally 
unexplored,  is  opened  by  the  endocrines  to  the  eugenists,  and 
those  idealists  whose  most  earnest  aspiration  is  the  improvement 
of  racial  stock  as  a  necessary  preliminary  to  improvement  of 
racial  life.  Beginning  with  Galton,  they  have  brought  to  light 
a  great  collection  of  data  to  prove  that  human  traits  and  facul- 
ties, good  and  bad,  are  inherited.  Ability  has  been  shown  to  run 
in  certain  families  and  degeneracy  in  others.  Yet  all  of  the 
practical  net  result  has  been  summed  up  in  the  term  "negative 
eugenics,"  the  eugenics  of  prohibition  and  warning. 

Now  the  concept  of  personality,  as  woven  around  a  system  of 
chemical  reflexes,  handed  on  from  generation  to  generation,  is 
bound  to  change  all  that,  and  to  create  a  structure  of  positive 
eugenics.  It  has  been  said  that  what  radium  is  to  chemistry,  the 
internal  secretions  are  to  physiology.  Just  as  radium  enlightens 
the  chemist  about  the  history  of  matter,  and  the  integrations 
and  disintegrations  constituting  the  life  of  an  element — the  in- 
ternal secretions  illuminate  the  history  of  the  individual  as  part 
of  the  life  of  the  race,  and  of  its  integrations  and  disintegrations. 
Seeing  the  individual  as  a  system  of  chemical  substances  inter- 
acting will  assist  enormously  to  predict  the  nature,  character 
and  constitution  of  his  descendants,  which  is  essentially  what 
the  eugenist  is  after. 

The  study  of  matings,  the  heart  of  the  matter,  will  concern 
itself  with  the  investigation  and  comparison  of  the  kind  of  en- 
docrine personalities  that  mate,  the  internal  secretion  predom- 
inances that  cross,  and  the  consequent  endocrine  personality  of 
the  offspring.  Data  bearing  upon  physique  and  physiognomy, 
details  of  anatomy  and  function,  mind  and  behaviour  will  so  be 
co-ordinated  as  no  eugenist  has  hitherto  succeeded  in  doing. 
Laws  of  endocrine  inheritance  will  emerge  that  will  bring  the 
control  of  heredity  within  measurable  distance.  Standards  and 
norms  of  a  new  kind  would  be  obtained. 

A  beginning  of  this  study  of  endocrine  inheritance,  on  the 
pathologic  side,  has  been  made.  Some  of  these  have  been  along 
Mendelian  lines.    Following  up  abnormal  growth  (making  giants 


THE   EFFECT   UPON   HUMAN   EVOLUTION      283 

and  dwarfs)  and  abnormal  metabolism  (goitre,  diabetes,  and  so 
on),  it  has  been  stated  that  it  would  seem  that  abnormal  growth 
is  dominant  in  the  male,  and  recessive  in  the  female,  while  abnor- 
mal metabolism  is  dominant  in  the  female  and  recessive  in  the 
male.  If  an  endocrine  abnormality  like  a  goitre,  or  cretinism,  or 
a  dwarf  or  giant  appear  in  a  family  as  a  sign  of  endocrine  insta- 
bility, other  members  of  that  family  will  very  likely  show  internal 
secretion  abnormalities. 

If  one  gland  of  internal  secretion  acts  as  the  centre  of  the 
system  and  the  others  as  satellites,  we  should  be  able  to  trace 
what  happens  to  it  in  the  different  generations.  Does  it  main- 
tain its  supremacy?  Or  will  it  be  ousted  by  another  member  of 
the  group?  The  time  will  come  when  we  shall  thus  be  able  to 
advise  prospective  parents  of  the  consequences  of  procreation 
and  to  forecast  the  meaning  for  the  race  of  a  particular  marriage. 
Internal  glandular  analysis  may  become  legally  compulsory  for 
those  about  to  mate  before  the  end  of  the  present  century. 

What  are  desirable  and  undesirable  matings?  The  general  law 
followed  by  nature  in  her  helterskelter  way  seems  to  be  the  pro- 
duction of  the  greatest  number  of  hybrids  and  variations  pos- 
sible, whether  for  good  or  evil  does  not  matter.  Certain  endocrine 
types  appear  to  be  specially  attracted  to  others  belonging  to  the 
same  group.  Thus  thymus-centered  types  frequently  marry. 
The  ante-pituitary  type  of  male,  the  strongly  masculine,  mates 
often  with  the  post-pituitary  type  of  female,  the  markedly  fem- 
inine. The  children  exhibit  the  lineaments  of  the  pituitary- 
centered  type.  The  general  trend  seems  to  be  the  establishment 
of  a  better  balanced,  equilibrated  type.  Yet  the  children  often  are 
apt  to  segregate  into  pituitary  dominants  or  pituitary  deficients. 
Happiness  and  unhappiness  in  marriage  should  be  examined  from 
the  standpoint  of  endocrine  compatibility  or  incompatibility. 
Likewise  those  divorced  or  about  to  be  divorced. 

The  correction  of  endocrine  defects,  disturbances,  imbalances 
and  instabilities,  before  mating,  presents  another  field.  It  re- 
mains to  be  seen  whether  we  shall  thereby,  in  one  generation,  be 
able  to  affect  at  all  the  germplasm,  hitherto  revered  by  all  pious 
biologists  as  an  environment-proof  holy  of  holies.  No  one  can 
deny,  in  the  face  of  the  multitude  of  evidence  available,  that  in- 
ternal secretion  disturbances  occur  in  the  mother,  which,  when 
grave,  offer  in  the  infant  gross  proof  of  their  significance,  and 
therefore  when  slight  must  more  subtly  work  upon  it.  Endocrine 
disturbances  in  infancy  have  been  traced  to  endocrine  disturb- 


284     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

ances  in  the  mother  during  pregnancy.  Pregnant  animals  fed  on 
thyroid  give  birth  to  young  with  large  thymus  glands.  The  diet 
of  the  mother  has  been  proved  conclusively  to  influence  the 
development  and  constitution  of  the  child.  As  the  internal 
secretions  influence  the  history  of  the  food  in  the  body,  they 
affect  development  in  the  womb  indirectly  as  well  as  directly. 
Certainly,  whether  or  no  we  learn  how  to  change  the  nature  of 
germplasm  within  a  short  time,  we  have  in  the  endocrines  the 
means  at  hand  for  affecting  the  whole  individual  that  is  born 
and  sees  the  light  of  day. 

The  Control  of  Mutations 

The  true  physical  and  intellectual  evolution  of  man  depends 
upon  the  production  of  mutations  of  a  desirable  kind  that  can 
survive.  The  information  furnished  by  the  study  of  the  en- 
docrines concerning  the  genesis  of  personality  provides  the  foun- 
dations for  a  positive  eugenics,  a  eugenics  of  the  encouragement 
of  desirable  matings,  with  the  proper  legal  and  social  procedures. 
Selective  breeding  for  the  production  of  the  best  endocrine  types 
should  become  practicable. 

But  the  biologist  should  be  able  to  go  farther.  If  the 
eugenist  is  to  limit  himself  to  the  method  of  the  animal  breeder 
he  will  have  to  rest  satisfied  with  the  characters  or  hereditary 
factors  given,  that  turn  up  spontaneously  in  an  individual.  But 
with  the  internal  secretions  as  the  controllable  controllers  of  mu- 
tations, the  outlook  changes.  It  should  become  possible  to  pro- 
duce new  mutations,  good  and  bad,  to  speed  up  their  production 
at  any  rate.  The  feeding  of  thyroid  to  a  gifted  father  before 
procreation  might  enhance  immeasurably  the  chances  of  trans- 
mission of  his  gift  as  well  as  of  its  intensification  in  his  offspring. 
A  field  of  investigation  is  opened  that  would  embrace  in  due  time 
the  deliberate  control  of  human  evolution. 

All  the  physical  traits,  stature,  color,  muscle  function,  and  so 
on,  offer  themselves  for  improvement,  as  well  as  brain  size,  and 
the  intellectual  and  emotional  factors  which  have  dominated 
man's  social  evolution.  The  general  prevalence  of  nervous  dis- 
orders in  civilized  countries,  visible  even  in  the  nervous  infants 
the  specialist  in  children's  diseases  is  called  upon  to  treat,  shows 
that  the  nervous  system  of  the  better  part  of  mankind  is  in  a 
state  of  unstable  equilibrium.  It  may  be  another  example  of  the 
curious  coincidences  that  have  been  called  the  Fitness  of  the  En- 


THE   EFFECT   UPON   HUMAN   EVOLUTION      285 

vironment  that  the  investigation  of  the  endocrines  promises  to  put 
into  our  hands  the  instruments  of  the  control  of  the  future  of  the 
nervous  system.  In  general,  meanwhile,  the  eugenist  should 
strive  for  raising  the  level  of  the  endocrine  potential,  and  dis- 
courage its  lowering.  That  means  the  encouragement  of  matings 
in  which  all  the  internal  secretion  activities  are  reinforced.  On 
the  other  hand,  those  internal  secretion  combinations,  generally 
leading  to  a  deficiency  of  all  of  them  which  produce  types  of 
mental  defectives,  delinquency  and  crime  should  not  be  allowed 
to  occur. 

The  Influence  of  Environment 

What  suggestions  now  are  there  for  the  euthenist  who  would 
control  the  influence  of  environment  upon  child  culture.  There 
are  certain  pertinent  facts  and  leads  that  are  worth  considering. 

In  analyzing  environment,  one  must  distinguish  sharply  in  the 
jungle,  the  non-living  factors  from  the  living.  For  while  the  non- 
living act  upon  the  endocrines  directly,  the  living  act  upon  the 
vegetative  system,  as  a  whole.  The  non-living  factors  are  those 
with  the  intimate  scrutiny  of  which  physics  and  chemistry  have 
busied  themselves:  food,  water,  air,  light,  heat,  electricity, 
magnetism.  The  living  are  the  animals  that  prowl  all  over  the 
planet,  the  predatories  spreading  the  gospel  of  fear. 

The  dietetic  habits  of  a  person,  for  instance,  are  known  to 
have  an  influence  upon  the  glands  of  internal  secretion.  Meat- 
eating  produces  a  greater  call  upon  the  thyroid  than  any  other 
form  of  food.  In  time  this  ought  to  produce  a  degree  of  hyper- 
thyroidism in  the  carniverous  populations.  Pre-war  statistics 
concerning  meat-eating  in  different  countries  show  the  greatest 
meat-eating  among  the  English-speaking  groups,  who  all  in  all 

must  be  admitted  the  most  energetic.  , ,     ,        ~ 

Meat  per  Day  per 

Countries  Capita  in  Grams 

Australia    >; 306 

U.  S.  of  America 149 

Great  Britain 130 

France .; 92 

Belgium  and  Holland  86 

Austria-Hungary  79 

Russia   ...; 59 

Spain ; 61 

Italy sa 29 

Japan    25 


286     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

Sea-water  contains  iodine.  People  living  in  contact  with  sea- 
water  would  be  apt  to  get  more  iodine  in  their  systems,  and  so 
a  greater  degree  of  thyroid  activity.  On  the  other  hand,  certain 
bodies  and  sources  of  inland  water  hold  something  deleterious  to 
the  thyroid,  so  that  whole  populations  in  Europe,  Asia  and 
America  drinking  such  water  have  become  goitrous  and  cretinous, 
and  a  large  percentage  straight  imbeciles.  Endemic  cretinism  is 
the  name  given  to  the  condition.  In  parts  of  Switzerland,  Savoy, 
Tyrol  and  the  Pyrenees,  in  America  around  some  of  the  Great 
Lakes,  there  are  still  such  foci.  Marco  Polo  described  similar 
areas  he  encountered  in  his  travels  through  Asia. 

Certain  foods  with  aphrodisiac  qualities  may  act  by  stimulat- 
ing the  internal  secretion  of  the  sex  glands.  A  type  of  pituito- 
centric  has  an  almost  uncontrollable  craving  for  sweets.  Alcohol 
and  the  endocrines  remain  to  be  studied. 

Light,  heat  and  humidity  stand  in  some  special  relation  to  the 
adrenals.  Pigment  deposit  in  the  skin  as  protection  against  light 
is  controlled  by  the  adrenal  cortex.  The  reaction  of  the  skin  blood 
vessels  to  heat  and  humidity  is  regulated  by  the  adrenal  medulla. 
A  change  in  the  adrenal  as  a  response  to  changes  of  temperature 
and  humidity  in  an  environment  would  result  in  a  number  of 
concomitant  transformations  throughout  the  body.  So  variation 
and  adaptation  are  probably  connected.  Most  Europeans  living 
for  a  sufficiently  long  time  in  the  tropics  suffer  from  a  combina- 
tion of  symptoms  spoken  of  as  "Punjab  head"  or  "Bengal  head." 
The  condition  is  probably  the  result  of  excessive  adrenal  stimu- 
lation by  the  excessive  heat  and  light  of  the  tropical  sun,  followed 
by  a  reaction  of  exhaustion  and  failure,  with  the  consequent 
phenomena  of  a  form  of  neurasthenia.  In  the  section  on  the 
pineal  gland  there  was  mentioned  the  relation  between  light  and 
the  pineal  gland  in  growing  animals,  and  how  it  serves  to  keep 
in  check  the  sex-stimulating  action  of  light.  The  earlier  puberty 
and  menstruation  of  the  warmer  climates  may  be  explained  as  due 
to  an  earlier  regression  of  the  pineal  under  the  pressure  of  a  great 
amount  of  light  playing  upon  the  skin. 

All  these,  and  many  more  could  be  cited,  are  instances  of  the 
direct  influence  of  environmental  factors  upon  one  or  more  of  the 
endocrines,  and  so  upon  the  organism  as  a  whole.  Indeed,  stimuli 
may  be  considered  to  modify  an  organism  only  in  so  far  as  they 
modify  the  glands  of  internal  secretion.  Consequently,  climatic 
factors  will  tend  to  make  a  population  possess  certain  points  of 
resemblance  in  common. 


THE   EFFECT   UPON   HUMAN   EVOLUTION      287 

Varieties  of  the  human  race  exist  as  do  varieties  of  dogs.  The 
Pekingese  and  the  fox  terrier  are  as  different  as  the  Slav  and 
Latin  are  different:  because  of  differences  in  internal  secretion 
make-up.  The  Slav  peasant  is  definitely  subthyroid  in  his  general 
effect:  round  head,  coarse  features,  stubby  hands,  and  his  stolid, 
brooding  intellectual  and  emotional  reaction.  The  Latin  shows  a 
pronounced  adrenal  streak  in  his  coloration,  his  emotivity,  his 
susceptibility  to  neurosis  and  psychosis.  H.  Laing  Gordon,  a  Scot 
physician,  reported  that  of  700  cases  he  studied,  more  than  twice 
as  many  of  duplex  eyed  individuals  (brown  or  black,  i.e.,  adrenal- 
centered  most  often),  were  susceptible  to  the  mental  disturbances 
of  war  as  the  simplex  (blue  or  gray-eyed,  i.e.,  thyroid-centered 
most  often).  He  also  pointed  out  that  such  individuals  tend  to 
have  a  narrow  and  abnormally  arched  palate.  The  Anglo-Saxon 
tends  to  be  more  sharply  pituitarized,  his  features  are  more  clean- 
cut,  his  mentality  more  stable.  The  Frenchman  is  rather  a  cross 
between  the  Anglo-Saxon  pituitary-centered  and  the  Italian  or 
Spanish  adrenal-centered. 

So  national  resemblances,  traceable  to  climatic  influences  being 
repeated  from  generation  to  generation  upon  the  endocrines,  may 
be  explained  physiologically.  The  physiologic  interpretation  of 
history  will  indeed  be  found  the  broadest,  including  as  comple- 
mentary Buckle's  climatic  theory,  Hegel's  ideas  on  the  influence 
of  ideas,  and  Marx's  on  the  superiority  of  the  economic  motives 
and  forces. 

The  Races  of  Mankind 

Arthur  Keith,  conservator  of  the  Museum  of  the  Royal  Col- 
lege of  Surgeons  of  England,  was  the  first  to  apply  the  principle 
of  endocrine  differentiation  to  the  problem  of  the  color-lines — the 
lines  which  have  divided  mankind  crudely  into  the  yellow,  the 
red,  the  white  and  the  brown,  the  Negro,  the  Mongol,  the  Cauca- 
sian, the  copper  tinted  American.  It  has  long  been  recognized 
by  authropologists  that  the  differences  of  color  march  with  dif- 
ferences in  every  comparable  trait.  Thus  the  ideal  Negro  is 
built  upon  a  pattern  in  which  all  the  elements  are  specific  and 
singular.  When  the  looms  revolve  that  make  him,  there  is  pro- 
duced a  gleaming  black  skin,  kinky  black  hair,  squat  wide- 
nostriled  nose,  thick  protruding  lips,  large  striking  teeth,  promi- 
nent jaws,  and  staring  eyes.  As  his  upright  carriage  and  bone- 
muscle-fat  proportions  are  distinctive,  so  are  his  musical  voice 
and  his  easily  wrought  upon  nerves.    In  contrast  the  Caucasian 


288     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

has  a  good  deal  of  hair  on  his  body,  his  skin  is  a  pale  tan-pink,  his 
lips  are  thin,  and  his  nose  especially  has  the  definite  bridge  which 
narrows  it.  The  Mongol,  like  the  Negro,  has  the  hairless  body 
and  the  beardless  face,  but  unlike  him  has  lank  straight  hair 
on  his  head,  while  his  features  are  flattened  and  fore-shortened. 

Upon  the  basis  of  these  structural,  functional  and  mental 
differences,  the  qualitative  and  quantitative  evolution  of  which 
in  the  race  as  in  the  individual  is  guided  by  the  glands  of  internal 
secretion,  Keith  presents  a  very  good  case  for  the  view  that  the 
white  man  is  an  example  of  relative  excess  of  the  pituitary, 
thyroid,  adrenal  and  gonad  endocrines.  "The  sharp  and  pro- 
nounced nasalization  of  the  face,  the  tendency  to  strong  eyebrow 
ridges,  the  prominent  chin,  the  tendency  to  bulk  of  body,  and 
height  of  stature  in  the  majority  of  Europeans"  are  the  signs  of 
pituitary  dominance.  Keith  is  also  of  the  opinion  that  "the  sex- 
ual differentiation,  the  robust  manifestations  of  the  male  charac- 
ters, is  more  emphatic  in  the  Caucasian  than  in  either  the  Mongol 
or  Negro  racial  types  ...  in  certain  negro  types,  especially  in 
Nilotic  tribes,  with  their  long  stork-like  legs,  we  seem  to  have 
a  manifestation  of  abeyance  in  the  action  of  the  interstitial 
glands."  As  for  the  adrenal  superiority  of  the  white  man,  "it  is 
150  years  since  John  Hunter  came  to  the  conclusion  .  .  .  that 
the  original  color  of  man's  skin  was  black,  and  all  the  knowledge 
that  we  have  gathered  since  his  supports  the  inference  he  drew. 
From  the  fact  that  pigment  begins  to  collect  and  thus  darken 
the  skin  when  the  adrenal  bodies  become  the  seat  of  a  destructive 
disease  we  infer  that  they  have  to  do  with  the  clearing  away  of 
pigment,  and  that  we  Europeans  owe  the  fairness  of  our  skins  to 
some  particular  virtue  resident  in  the  adrenal  bodies."  Finally, 
as  regards  the  thyroid,  a  comparison  of  the  face  of  a  cretin  with 
that  of  the  Negro  or  Mongol  tells  the  story.  A  certain  variety 
of  idiocy,  Mongolian  idiocy,  in  which  the  face  simulates  creti- 
nism so  closely  as  to  deceive  practised  clinical  observers,  is  char- 
acterized by  a  Chinese  cast  of  the  features  and  eyes,  hence  the 
name.  And  in  the  Bushman  of  South  Africa,  the  cretin's  face  is 
even  more  startlingly  recalled. 

There  is  every  reason  then  for  believing  that  the  white  man 
possesses  more  of  pituitary,  adrenal,  gonad,  and  thyroid  internal 
secretions  as  compared  with  the  yellow  man  or  black  man.  And 
since  these  endocrines  control  not  only  physique  and  physiog- 
nomy, anatomic  and  functional  minutiae,  but  also  mind  and 
behaviour,  we  are  justified  in  putting  down  the  white  man's  pre- 


THE   EFFECT   UPON   HUMAN   EVOLUTION      289 

dominance  on  the  planet  to  a  greater  all-around  concentration  in 
his  blood  of  the  omnipotent  hormones.  While  the  Negro  is  rela- 
tively subadrenal,  the  Mongol  is  relatively  subthyroid.  Their 
relative  deficiency  in  internal  secretions  constitutes  the  essence 
of  the  White  Man's  Burden. 

Man's  Attitude  Toward  Himself 

A  last,  but  by  no  means  least,  application  we  may  consider  of 
the  developing  knowledge  of  the  internal  secretions  in  relation  to 
human  evolution  is  its  effect  upon  Man's  attitude  toward  himself 
and  so  toward  his  fellow  men.  Whatever  else  he  is,  man  is  a  land 
animal  with  ideas.  That  makes  him  a  thought-adventurer  among 
materials.  In  a  word,  he  is  the  last  word  of  mind  working  upon 
matter.  But  persistently  he  has  refused  to  recognize  himself  as 
matter  and  as  subject  to  the  laws,  to  the  physics  and  chemistry 
of  matter. 

History  consists  of  the  protocols  that  record  the  high  lights  of 
the  interactions  of  materials  and  ideas  which  is  the  adventure  of 
man  in  time  and  space.  Materials  and  ideas  have  reacted,  the 
record  shows;  materials  come  upon  have  begotten  strange  fanta- 
sies. Ideas  that  flashed  from  nowhere  into  a  consciousness  have 
transformed  utterly  the  face  of  the  earth.  The  herd-brute,  agglu- 
tinated with  his  fellows  by  a  magnetism  beyond  his  ken,  could  be 
infected  with  thought,  and  so  cast  in  the  heroic  mould.  The  possi- 
bility of  communion, — that  possibility  of  possibilities,  for  without 
it  none  other  could  be  possible — has  rendered  man  the  heir  of  a 
divine  destiny.  For  the  progressive  education  of  the  race,  a  single 
discoverer  here,  an  inventor  there,  and  thinkers  everywhere  have 
been  inspired.  In  due  time  their  inspiration  becomes  the  posses- 
sion of  even  the  lowest  brain  but  capable  of  grasping  it. 

Man's  attitude  toward  himself,  his  self-consciousness,  and  his 
attitude  toward  his  fellow  creatures  has  grown  and  varied  and 
evolved  with  his  education  about  himself.  According  to  the 
theory  he  formulated  concerning  his  being,  his  why  and  where- 
fore, he  directed  and  governed,  punished  and  mutilated  himself 
and  them.  But  the  pressure  of  his  curiosity,  and  the  inexorable 
quality  of  the  truth  would  not  let  him  stand  still.  The  poetic 
genius  within  him,  as  Blake  called  it,  struggled  on  from  one 
dogma  concerning  his  nature  to  another.  Behaviour  malignant 
or  beneficent,  horrible  in  its  tragedy  and  pitiable  in  its  comedy, 
flowed  inevitably  on.  Witchcraft  trials  and  the  tortures  of  the 
Spanish  Inquisition  belong  among  the  more  mentionable  con- 


290     THE  GLANDS  REGULATING  PERSONALITY 

sequences  of  some  of  man's  theories  about  his  own  nature  and  its 
requirements. 

Heretofore  the  imaginative  spirit  has  had  its  day  in  the  mat- 
ter. And,  curiously  enough,  an  obsession  to  subjugate  the  natural 
has  made  it  exalt  the  supernatural.  Visions,  dreams,  portents, 
revelations,  all  symptomatic  of  an  order  of  things  above  nature, 
are  the  stuff  of  what  more  than  ninety-nine  per  cent  of  the  mil- 
lions of  the  race  believe  about  themselves  and  their  fate.  Man's 
cruelty  to  man,  through  the  ages,  is  a  comment  upon  how  vast  and 
ramifying  may  be  the  consequences  of  a  delusion. 

But  now  for  a  couple  of  centuries  the  critical  spirit,  which  is 
the  spirit  of  science,  has  been  invading  the  affairs  of  men.  Hum- 
ble but  persistent  corrosive  of  delusion,  it  has  infiltrated  the 
furthest  bounds  of  ignorance  and  superstition.  It  has  not  dared 
to  assert  the  supremacy  of  its  fundamental  views  upon  the  every- 
day problems  of  human  life  because  it  was  without  concrete 
means  of  vindicating  its  claims.  That  lack  is  now  supplied  by  the 
growing  understanding  of  the  chemical  factors  as  the  control- 
lers and  dictators  of  all  the  legion  aspects  of  life. 

The  profoundest  achievement  of  the  physiologist  will  be  the 
change  his  teachings  and  discoveries  will  bring  about  in  man's 
attitude  toward  himself.  When  he  comes  to  realize  himself  as  a 
chemical  machine  that  can,  within  limits,  be  remodeled,  over- 
hauled and  repaired,  as  an  automobile  can  be,  within  limits,  when 
he  becomes  saturated  with  the  significance  of  his  endocrine-vege- 
tative system  at  every  turn  and  move  of  his  life,  and  when 
sympathy  and  pity  informed  by  knowledge  and  understanding 
will  come  to  regulate  his  relationships  with  the  lowest  and  most 
despised  of  the  men,  women  and  children  about  him,  the  era  of 
the  first  real  civilization  will  properly  be  said  to  be  born. 

Morality,  as  society's  code  of  conduct  for  its  members,  will  have 
to  change  in  the  direction  of  a  greater  flexibility  with  the  es- 
tablishment of  organic  differences  in  human  types.  There  is 
nothing  that  is  more  emphasized  to  the  pathologist  than  that 
one  man's  meat  is  another  man's  poison.  In  the  family,  as 
nature's  laboratory  for  the  manufacture  of  fresh  combinations 
of  the  internal  secretions,  allowances  will  be  made  for  divergences 
in  capacity  and  deportment  from  a  new  angle  altogether.  Schools 
will  function  as  the  developers,  stimulators  and  inhibitors  of  the 
endocrines,  as  well  as  investigators  of  the  individuals  who  have 
not  enough  or  too  much  of  one  or  some  of  them.  Prisons  will 
have  the  same  function,  only  they  will  be  named  detention  hos- 


THE  EFFECT  UPON   HUMAN  EVOLUTION     291 

pitals.  The  raising  of  the  general  level  of  intelligence  by  the 
judicious  use  of  endocrine  extracts  will  mean  a  good  deal  to  the 
sincere  statesman.  The  average  duration  of  life  will  be  prolonged 
for  an  enormous  mass  of  the  population.  If  the  prevention  of 
war  depends  upon  the  burning  into  the  imagination  of  the  elec- 
torates what  the  consequences  of  war  are,  a  high  intelligence  quo- 
tient and  revaluation  of  life  will  count  for  a  good  deal. 

Man  is  the  animal  that  wants  Utopia.  So  long  as  human  na- 
ture was  looked  upon  as  fixed  constant  in  the  ebb  and  flow  of 
life,  a  Utopia  of  fine  minds  could  be  conceived  only  by  the 
dreamer  and  poet.  The  desire  for  such  a  Utopia  could  only  be 
regarded  as  a  tragic  aspiration  for  an  impossibility.  The  phy- 
siology of  the  internal  secretions  teaches  that  human  nature  does 
change  and  can  be  changed.  A  relative  control  of  its  properties 
is  already  in  view.    The  absolute  control  will  come. 

Nor  need  anyone  fear  that  the  science  of  the  internal  secretions 
in  its  maturity  will  signify  the  abolition  of  the  marvelous  differ- 
ences between  human  beings  that  create  the  unique  personalities 
of  history.  A  derangement  of  the  endocrines  has  been  responsible 
for  masterpieces  of  the  human  species  in  the  past  and  will  be 
responsible  for  them  in  the  future.  The  equality  of  Utopia  can 
be  the  equality  of  the  highest  and  fullest  development  possible  for 
each  of  its  inhabitants.  The  applications  of  endocrine  control 
will  not  necessarily  interfere  with  the  life  of  the  individual. 
There  will  be  breeding  of  the  best  mixtures  of  glands  of  internal 
secretion  possible.  And  there  will  be  treatment  for  those  born 
with  a  handicap,  or  who  have  become  handicapped  in  the  life 
struggle.  There  will  be  a  stimulation  of  capacity  to  the  limit. 
But  beyond  that,  compulsory  equalization  is  a  theorist's  bogey. 

The  internal  secretions  are  the  most  hopeful  and  promising  of 
the  reagents  for  control  yet  come  upon  by  the  human  mind. 
They  open  up  limitless  prospects  for  the  improvement  of  the  race. 
A  few  hundreds  of  investigators  are  engaged  upon  their  study 
throughout  the  world.  That  is  one  of  the  ironies  of  our  contem- 
porary civilization.  A  concerted  effort  at  the  task  of  understand- 
ing them,  backed  by  the  labors  of  tens  of  thousands  of  workers, 
would,  without  a  doubt,  accomplish  as  much  for  humanity  as 
the  vast  armies  and  navies  that  consume  the  substance  of  man- 
kind. If  we  could  not  obtain  Utopia  then,  we  might,  at  least 
by  abolishing  the  subnormals  and  abnormals  who  constitute  the 
slaves  and  careerists  of  society,  render  the  human  race  less  con- 
temptible and  more  divine. 


INDEX 


Ability,  natural,  197 

Acquired  characters,  inheritance  of, 

278 
Acromegaly,  41 
Addison,  34,  36 
Addison's  disease,  35,  72,  125 
Adolescence,  period  of,  257,  258 
Adrenal  glands,  69,  95 

and  anger,  176 

and  courage,  175,  177 

and  emergencies,  74 

and  emotions,  75 

and  fatigue,  267 

and  fear,  75,  176 

and  neuroses,  191 

and  pseudo-hermaphroditism,  70 

and  puberty,  137 

blood  pressure  and,  73 

brain  cells  and,  71 

chromaffin  cells  of,  73 

cortex  of,  69 

excess  of  secretion,  80 

failure  of  secretion,  77 

function  of,  95 

glands  of  combat  and  fight,  74 

hair  and,  128,  204 

influence   of   in  hermaphroditism, 
70,  143 

insufficiency  of  secretion,  77 

medulla  of,  73 

pigment  cells  and,  72 

relation  to  pineal  gland,  90 

relation  to  pituitary,  99 

secretion  of,  95 

sexuality  and,  70 

skin  and,  125 
Adrenal-centered  type,  112 
Adrenal  face,  122 

Adrenal  personalities,  or  types,  112, 
203 

compensated,  205 

insufficient,  206 

in  pregnancy,  158 

of  brain  work,  204 

of  girl,  150 

of  hair,  204 

of  skin,  204 

of  teeth,  123 


Adrenal   personalities,    or   types   of 
women,  205 

reactions  to  modernism  in,  207 
Adrenalin,  74 

Alcoholism  and  endocrine  types,  270 
Analysis,  endocrine,  115,  202 
Anger,  175 

and  adrenals,  176 
Antagonisms,  98 
Anti-Fate,  14 
Antitoxic  function  of  thyroid  gland, 

60 
Ape-parvenu,  the,  202 
Applications  of  endocrinology,  255 
Autonomic  system,  101 

Backgrounds  of  personality,  186 

Baldness  and  the  thyroid,  128 

Baumann,  48 

Bayliss,  44,  45 

Beard,  78,  186 

Beard's  neurasthenia,  78 

von  Bechterew,  174 

Behavior,  106,  171 

Bell,  Blair,  85 

Bernard,  Claude,  32,  43 

Berthold,  32,  83 

Black   races,    endocrine    control    in, 

288 
Blood  pressure,  and  adrenals,  73 
Body,  influence  of  glands  upon,  113 
Body-mind  complex,  167 
Bones,  120 

long,  development  of,  84 
Bordeau,  29 
Bossi,  85 

Brain  cells  and  adrenals,  71 
Brain,  growth  of,  97 
Brainwork,  adrenal  type  of,  204 
Breakdown,  nervous,  189 
Bleeding,      bearing     of     endocrine 

glands  on,  279 
Brown  Sequard,  33,  35,  42,  73,  108, 

130 

Caesar,  Julius,  an  epileptic,  245 

pituitary  in,  245 
Capacity,   175 


293 


294 


LNDEX 


Careerists.   7 

as  abnormal s.  7 

feminine.  7 

instinct*  of.  S 

masculiiiT    > 

surer-.  5 
Carlson.  10S 
nation,  52 

effects  of.  S3,  13S 

effects  of.  on  thymus.  85 
Character.  107 
Charcot,  1S7 

Charging  of  wishes,  endocrine,  172 
Check  and  drive  system.  100 
Chemistry  of  the  soul.  22 
Child  -  bearing,   transfigurations    of, 

157 
Childhood,  epoch  of  the  pineal.  257, 

258 
Chromaffin  cells  of  adrenals,  73 
Chromosomes,  135 
Climacteric,  161 
Color,  endocrine  control  of,  in  races. 

255 

Combat,  adrenals  and,  74 

Combinations   of   types   of   person- 
alitv,  228 

Conduct,  106 

Constitutions,  endocrine,  277 

Cooperation,  98 

Corpus  luteum,  151 
and  mammary  glands,  160 

Courage  and  the  adrenals,  175,  177 

Cretinism,  52 
a  thyroid  deficiency,  52 
effect  of  feeding  thyroid  in,  55 

Cretinoid  tvpe.  215 

Cretins,  1S2  * 

Crime,  treatment  of.  272 

Criminals  and  endocrine  types,  273 

Critical  aees.  161 

Curling.  39 

Cushing,  Harvey,  41,  197 

Dangerous  age,  the.  161 

Darwin,  Charles,  113 
as  a  neurasthenic  genius.  240 
his  "Descent  of  Man,"  227 
his  theory  of  Pangenesis,  278 

Davenport,  125 

Deficiency,  mental,  199 

Development,   112 

Diabetes,  and  the  pancreas,  93,  94 

Diet,    effect    of    on    the    endocrine 
glands,  285 

Directorate,  endocrine  glands  as  a, 
96,  109 

Diseases  and  endocrine  types,  268 


Division  of  labor,  116 

Drug  addiction  and  endocrine  types, 

270 
Dwarfs,   40 

Education,  of  vegetative  system,  194 

vocational.  264 
Egomania.  179 
Elixir  of  life,  43 

Emergencies,  adrenals  glands  of.  74 
Emotions,  adrenals  glands  of,  75 
Endocrine,  31 
analysis,  115,  202 
charging  of  wishes,  172 
constitutions,  277 
control  in  color  of  races,  288 
corporation,  96 
deficiency  in  old  age.  257 
epochs  of  life,  256,  257 
glands,  31 
and  feeblemindedness,  200 
and  insanity,  199 
as    an   interlocking    directorate, 

96,  109 
bases  of  variation,  276 
bearing  on  breeding,  279 
discovery  of,  28 
effect  of  diet  on,  285 
influence  upon  body,  113 
influence  upon  mind,  166 
inferiority,  271 
neurosis.  189 
personality,  202,  268 
sex  traits.  136 
types,  202 
alcoholism  and,  270 
criminals  and.  273 
diseases  and,  268 
drug  addiction  and,  270 
narcotism  and,  270 
Endocrines,  evolution  of,  193 
Endocrinology,  applications  of,  255 

possibilities  of,  255 
Energy,  ISO 

and  thyroid,  180 
Enthusiasm  and  thyroid,  199 
Environment,  influence  of,  285 
Epilepsy,  in  genius,  236,  244,  235 
Epochs  of  life,  endocrine,  256,  257 
Eugenics,  negative,  282 
positive,  284 
promises  of,  19 
Eunuchoid  face,  122 

personality,  224,  226 
Eunuchoidism,  83 
Eunuchs,  82 

Evolution,  human,  effect  of  internal 
secretions  upon,  275 


INDEX 


295 


Exhibitionism,  169 
Expressionism,  169 
Eyes,  129 

Face,  adrenal,  122 

eunuchoid,  122 

hyperpituitary,  122 

hyperthyroid,  122 
Facial  types,  121 
Family,  and  mixed  sex,  144 
Fat,  distribution  of,  126 
P'at  people,  40 
Fate  and  Anti-Fate,  14 
Fatigue  and  industry,  265 

as  an  endocrine  deficiency,  266 

relation  of  adrenals  to,  267 

relation  of  thymus  to,  87 
Fear,  175,  176 

mechanism  of,  75 

relation  of  adrenals  to,  75,  176 
Feeblemindedness  and  the  endocrine 

glands,  200 
Feminine   pituitary   type,   210,   211, 

213 
Feminine  precocity,  141 
Feminoid  complex,  222 

constitution  and  personality,  225, 
226 
Fertilization,  135 

Fight,  relation  of  adrenals  to,  74 
Fingers,  pituitary  and,  121 

thyroid  and,  121 
Forgetting,  181 
Freedom,  2 
Freud,  195,  187 
Freudianism,  187 
Freudians,  20 
Friedleben,  38,  87 

Galli,  226 
Galton,  180,  198 

Genius,  epilepsy  in,  235,  236,  244 
migraine  in,  235 
neurasthenic,  237 
treatment  of,  252 
Giants,  40,  66 

Girl,  endocrine  types  of,  150 
Glands,  definition  of,  28 
endocrine,  as  an  interlocking  di- 
rectorate, 96,  109 
discovery  of,  28 
influence  on  body,  113 
influence  on  mind,  166 
Goitre,  relation  of  iodine  to,  51 
Gonads,  80,  95 
and  libido,  84 
and  sexuality,  83 
and  thymus,  85 


Gonads  and  thyroid,  99 

function,  95 

secretion,  95 
Gonad-centric  personalities,  224 

homosexuality  and,  226 
Growth,  120 

relation  of  thymus  to,  86 
Guilford,  60 
Gull,  39,  50 

Hair,  127 

and  adrenals,    128,  204 

and  pineal,  127 

and  thymus,  127 

and  thyroid,   128 
Hands,  and  pituitary,  121 

and  thyroid,  121 
Henle,  31 

Hermaphrodite,  143 
Hermaphroditism,    135 

functional,  225 

influence  of  adrenals  in,  70,  143 

influence  of  pituitary  in,  143 
Hibernation,  65 

and  the  pituitary,  64 
Historic  personages,  231 

Darwin,  Charles,  240 

Julius  Caesar,  245 

Napoleon,  231 

Nietzsche,  237 

Nightingale,  Florence,  246 

Wilde,  Oscar,  249 
History,  internal  secretions  in,  231 
von  Hochwart,  89 

Homosexuality,    and    gonad-centric 
type,  226 

and  thymus  type,  222 
Hormones,  31,  44 

harmony  of  the,  103 
Horsley,  39,  41 
Howitz,  39 
Human  nature,  10 

attitudes  towards,  1 

case  against,  1 

science  and,  17 
Hunger,  106,  108,  173 
Hunter,  John,  288 
Hygiene  of  the  internal  secretions, 

270,  272 
Hyperpituitary  face,  122 

skin,  125,  126 
Hyperpituitrism,  65 
Hyperthyroid  face,  122 

skin,  125,  126 

type,  216 
of  girl,  150 
pregnancy  in,  158 
premenstrual  molimina  in,  153 


296 


INDEX 


Hyperthyroidism,  52,  58 
Hysteria,  186 

Imagination,  an  endocrine  gift,  183 
Improvement  of  racial  stock,  282 
Industry,  and  fatigue,  265 

relation  of  endocrines  to,  266 
Infancy,  epoch  of  the  thymus,  257 
Infantilism,  83 

Infantiloid  constitution  or  personal- 
ity, 225 
Inferiority,  breeding  of,  3 
Inheritance   of   acquired   characters, 

278 
Insanity,  and  the  endocrine  glands, 

199 
Instinct,  171 
Instincts,  pituitary,  178 

thyroid,  179 
Insuline,  93,  95 
Intellectuality,    and    the    pituitary, 

178,  198 
Internal  secretions,  determinants  of 
vegetative  pressures,  107 
effect  of,  upon  human  evolution, 

275 
hygiene  of,  270,  272 
in  history,  231 
Interstitial  glands,  see  Gonads 

type  of  teeth,  123 
Iodine,  in  thyroxin,  48,  51 
relation  of  to  goitre,  51 

Janet,  187 
Judgment,  181 

Julius  Caesar,  an  epileptic,  245 
pituitary  in,  245 

Keith,  287 

Kendall,  48 

Kinetic  chain,  102,  103 

drive,  100,  101 

system,  99 
Kocher,  39 

Laennec,  31 
Lanugo,  127 
Larey,  83 
Libido  and  gonads,  84 

sex,  108 
Life,  well-springs  of,  24 
Lime  salts,  and  sex,  142 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  213 
Lutein,  138 

MacDougallians,  20 

Malthusian  law  of  slavery,  4  j 


Mammary  glands,  160 
corpus  luteum  and,  160 
placenta  and,  161 
Man,  a  transient,  12 
attitude  of  towards  himself,  289 
a   product   of   glands   of   internal 

secretion,  26 
critical  age  in,  163 
secondary    sex    characteristics    of, 
137 
Manic  depressive  psychoses,  179 
Mankind,  races  of,  287 
Marie,  Pierre,  41 
Masculine,  the  secret  of  the,  141 
Masculine  and  feminine,  mechanics 

of,  132,  and  see  Sex 
Masculine  pituitary  type,  210,  212 
Masculinoid  women,  154,  205 
Masochism,  147 
Maternal  instinct,  155 
different  from  sex  instinct,  156 
relation  of  the  pituitary  to,  178 
Matings,  desirable  and  undesirable, 

283 
Megalomania,  179 
Memory,  181 
Mendelism,  280,  282 
Menopause,  138,  161 
Menstruation,  137 
and  ovaries,  138 
cycle  of,  151 
Mental  deficiency,  199 
Migraine  in  genius,  235 
Mind,  influence  of  glands  on,  166 

oldest  part  of,  104 
Mitchell,  Weir,  187 
Mixed  sex  and  the  family,  144 
Mixed  types,  114 
Mobius,  39 
Modernism,  reactions  to  in  adrenal 

types,  207 
Moods,    and    the    organic    outlook, 

185 
Moral   irresponsibility   and  thymus 

type,  223 
Mujerados,  226 
Miiller,  Johann,  31 
Murray,  39 
Muscles,  129 

Mutations,  control  of,  284 
Myxedema,  39,  50,  54,  57 
operative,  39 

Napoleon,  case  of,  231 
Narcotism,  and  endocrine  types,  270 
Nature's  experiments  vs.  Man's,  229 
"Nerves,"  186,  209 
Nervous  breakdowns,  189 


INDEX 


297 


Neurasthenia,  78 
Neurosis,  186 

adrenals  and,  191 

endocrine,  189 

war,  189 
Nietzsche,  case  of,  237 
Nightingale,    Florence,    legend    of, 

246 
Normal,  what  is,  118 

Obesity,  126 

Operative  myxedema,  39 

Ord,  William,  39,  57 

Ovaries,  internal  secretion  of,  138 

relation  of  to  menstruation,  138 

removal  of,  effect  of,  138 

role  of,  137 
Oversecretion,  116 

Pancreas,  93,  109 
diabetes  and,  93,  94 
function  of,  95 
removal  of,  94 
secretion  of,  95 
Pangenesis,  Darwin's  theory  of,  278 
Parathyroids,  91,  95 
function  of,  95 
secretion  of,  95 
Paulesco,  41 
Pawlov,  44 

Permutations,   of  types   of  person- 
ality, 228 
Perry,  Caleb,  38 
Personality,  background  of,  186 
combinations  of  types  of,  228 
determined  by  the  endocrines,  268 
endocrine,  202 
eunuchoid,  224,  226 
types  of,  202 
adrenal,  203 
combinations  of,  228 
gonad-centric,  224 
nature's  experiments  vs.  man's, 

229 
permutations  of,  228 
pituitary  of,  210 
Philosophers,  prejudices  of,  27 
Physics  of  the  wish,  106 
Physiologists,  attitude  of,  24 

role  of,  21 
Pigment  cells  and  the  adrenals,  72 

in  skin  of  various  races,  125 
Pineal  gland,  88,  95 
and  hair,  127 
and  childhood,  257,  258 
feeding  of  to  children,  90 
function  of,  89,  90,  95 
muscle  function  of,  90 


Pineal  gland,  obesity  and,  126 
puberty  and,  137 
relation  of  to  adrenals,  90 
to  progressive   muscular  atrophy, 

90 
secretion  of,  95 
type  of  muscles,  130 
Pituitary  gland,  63 
action  of,  63 
and  fingers,  121 
and  toes,  121 
compared  with  thyroid,  68 
diminished  action  of,  64,  65 
extirpation  of,  64 
function  of,  94 
in  Julius  Caesar,  245 
in  Oscar  Wilde,  251 
instincts,  178 
overaction  of,  65 
personalities,  210 
regulator     of     organic     rhythms, 

64 
relation  to  adrenals,  99 

to  growth,  120 

to  hair,  128 

to  hermaphroditism,  143 

to  hibernation,  64 

to  imagination,   184 

to  intellectuality,  178,  198 

to  judgment,  182 

to  maternal  instincts,  178 

to  memory,  181 

to  puberty,  137 

to  rejuvenation,  261 

to  sex  difficulties,  222 

to  sexual  glands,  83 

to  stature,  120 

to  thymus,  99 
secretion  of,  94 

secretion,    characteristics    of    in- 
ferior, 214 

characteristics  of  sufficient,  214 
type,  210 

feminine,  211,  213 

masculine,  210,  212 

of  eyes,  129 

of  hands,  121 

of  muscles,  129 

pregnancy  in,  158 

premenstrual   molimina   in,   153 
Pituitary-centered  type,  111 
Pituitocentrics,  Caesar,  245 
Darwin,  243 
Napoleon,  232 
Nietzsche,  240 
Nightingale,  248 
Pituitrin,  63,  94 
function  of,  94 


298 


INDEX 


Placenta,  159 

and  mammary  glands,  161 
Placental  gland,  159 
Plater,  Felix,  38 
Plummer,  50 
Poise,  181 
Popielski,  44 

Possibilities  of  endocrinology,  255 
Postpituitary  type  of  girl,  150. 
Precocity,  feminine,  141 

male,  141 
Pregnancy,     in     various     endocrine 

types,  158 
Premenstrual   molimina,   in  various 

endocrine  types,  153 
Progressive  muscular  dystrophy  and 

the  pineal  gland,  90 
Prostate,  163 
Pseudo-hermaphroditism    and    the 

adrenals,  70 
Psychanalyst,  as  a  therapeutist,  197 
Psychology,  new,  20 
Psychopathology  of  every  day  life, 

196 
Puberty,  137,  163 

glands,  see  Gonads 

in  female,  139 

significance  of,  140 
Public  health,  prospects  of,  267 
Pure  types,  113 
Puericulture,  science  of,  262 

Races  of  mankind,  287 

Reactions  to  modernism  in  adrenal 

types,  207 
Rejuvenation,  possibilities  of,  260 
Religion  of  science,  16 
Repression,  188 
Resilience  of  skin,  126 
Restelli,  38 
Reverdin,  J.  L.,  39 
Rhythms  of  sex,  149 
Robertson,  63 

Sadism,  147 

Schiff,  Moritz,  38,  39 

Science,  and  human  nature,  17 

origin  of,  15 

religion  of,  16 
Secondary  sex  traits,  136 
Secretin,  45 
Secretion,  28 
Sella  turcica,  62,  67,  211 
Semon,  Sir  Felix,  39 
Senility,   epoch    of   endocrine   defi- 
ciency, 257 

interpretation  of,  258 
Sensitivity,  180 


Sex,  130,  131 

and  lime  salts,  142 
attitudes  towards  questions  of,  133 
cause  of,  134 
chemistry  of,  133 
characteristics,  secondary,  136,  137 
conflict,  81 
crises,  163 

difficulties,  pituitary  and,  222 
glands,  see  Gonads 
and  hair,  128 
and  puberty,  137 
and  muscles,  130 
centered,  224 
chain,  150 
index,  142 
instinct,  171,  168 
different  from  maternal  instinct, 
156 
libido,  108 

life,  determining  factors  of,  164 
mixed,  and  the  family,  144 
rhythms  of,  149 
traits,  or  characteristics,  136 
endocrine,  136 
origin  of,  80 
primary,  136 
secondary,  136,  137 
Sexual  cravings,  108 

glands,     see     Gonads,     and     Sex 
glands 
and  pituitary  gland,  83 
Sexuality,  and  gonads,  83 
and  adrenal  glands,  70 
Shaw,  G.  B.,  213 
Shell-shock,  79,  189,  209 
Skeletal  types,  119 
Skin,  125 

adrenal  type,  204 
and  adrenals,  125,  204 
hyperpituitary  type,  125,  126 
hyperthyroid  type,  125,  126 
pigmentation,  125 
subadrenal  type,  126 
subpituitary  type,  125,  126 
subthyroid  type,  125,  126 
Slavery,  Malthusian  law  of,  4 

origin  of,  3 
Soul,  chemistry  of  the,  22 
Starling,  44,  45 
Statesman,  problems  of,  6 

why  he  fails,  9 
Stature,  pituitary  and,  120 
Status     lymphaticus,    and     thymus 

type,  219,  221 
Steinach,  259 
Stirner,  Max,  208 
Subadrenal  skin,  126 


INDEX 


299 


Subpituitary  skin,  125,  126 
Subpituitary   type   of   women,   pre- 
menstrual molimina  in,  153 
Subpituitism,  64,  65 
Subthyroid  face,  122 
skin,  125,  126 
type,  215 
of  eyes,  129 

of  women,  pregnancy  in,  158 
Subthyroidism,  52,  58 
Sugar  metabolism,  97 
Super-Careerist,  8 
Susceptibility,  175 
Sympathetic  system,  101 

Teeth,  123 
Tethelin,  63,  94 

action  of,  63 

function  of,  94 
Thymic  face,  123 
Thymo-centric  personalities,  217 
Thymo-centric   type,    Oscar    Wilde, 

250 
Thymus,  85 

and  gonads,  85 

and  pituitary,  99 

and  puberty,  137 

and  sexual  glands,  83 

and  thyroid,  99 

effect  of  castration  on,  85 

effect  of  feeding  thymus  to  ani- 
mals, 87 

extirpation  of,  86 

function  of,  86,  95 

hair  and,  127 

hyperactivity   of,  86 

infancy,  epoch  of  the,  257 

persistent,  skin  of,  125 

relation  of  fatigue  to,  87 

relation  of  growth  to,  86 

relation  of  weight  to,  86 

removal  of,  effect  on  gonads,  85 

secretion,  95 

type  of  teeth,  123 
Thymus   type,   homosexuality    and, 
222 

moral  irresponsibility  and,  223 

status  lymphaticus  and,  219,  221 
Thyroid  gland,  46,  94 

and  adrenals,  100 

and  baldness,  128 

and  energy,  180 

and  enthusiasm,  199 

and  intersitial  glands,  99 

and  judgment,  182 

and  memory,  181 

and  pancreas,  99 

and  pituitary,  99 


Thyroid  gland  and  puberty,  137 

and  rejuvenation,  260 

and  skin,  126 

and  thymus,  99 

antitoxic  function  of,  60 

as  an  accelerator,  48 

as  a  catalyser,  50 

as  a  differentiator,  59 

as  an  energiser,  49,  50 

compared  with  pituitary,  68 

creator  of  land  animals,  47 

deficiency,  53,  180,  215 

effect  of  feeding  the  gland,  55 

excess,  216 

functions  of,  94 

hair  and,  128 

instincts,  179 

personalities,  215 

secretion  of,  48,  94,  and  see  Thy- 
roxin 

type,  of  eyes,  129 
of  hands,  121 
of  muscles,  129 
of  teeth,  123 
Thyroid-centered  type,  111 
Thyrotoxin,  94 
Thyroxin,  48 

and  energy  mobilization,  50 

and  energy  production,  49 

and  speed  of  living,  48 
Toes,  pituitary  and,  121 

thyroid  and,  121 
Tonus,  106 
Types,  endocrine,  202 

adrenal,  203 

adrenal-centered,  112 

alcoholism  and,  270 

combinations  of,  228 

cretinoid,  215 

criminals  and,  273 

diseases  and,  268 

drug  addiction  and,  270 

facial,  121 

hyperthyroid,  216 

mixed,  114 

narcotism  and,  270 

of  girls,  150 

pituitary,  210,  211,  212,  213 

pituitary-centered,  111 

pure,  113 

skeletal,  119 

subthyroid,  215 

thyroid-centered,  111 

Unconscious,   the,  and   the   viscera, 
192 
physical  basis  of,  194 
Undersecretion,  116 


300 


INDEX 


Variation,  113 

endocrine  glands  as  basis  of,  276 

Varieties  of  internal  secretions,  117 

Vegetative  apparatus,  103 

Vegetative  pressures,  internal  secre- 
tions determinants  of,  107 

Vegetative    system,    education    of, 
194 

Virilism,  71 

Viscera,  the  unconscious  and,  192 

Vocational  education,  264 

War  neurosis,  189 

Weight  relation  of  thymus  to,  86 


White  races,  endocrine  control  in, 

288 
Wilde,  Oscar,  explanation  of,  249 
Wishes,  endocrine  charging  of,  172 

physics  of,  106 
Women,  adrenal  type  of,  205 
masculinoid,  154,  205 
secondary   sex   characteristics   in, 
137 

X-chromosome,  135,  136 

Yellow  races,  endocrine  control  in, 
288 


COLUMBIA  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARIES  (hsl.stx) 

QP  187  B45  1921  C.1 

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